maureen320

I work in a transfusion service in a 400 bed hospital.  We are currently wanting to correlate the different temperature monitors that actually are attached to units of blood.  Any suggestions and also how many is normal to compare in a validation study?
Thanks
 

Hello everyone,
 
We have a hospital policy that states transfusions must be started within 30 minutes of receipt from the Blood Bank. 
 
I've read the posts about the 30 minute rule here but my question to all is this:  what do your nursing/hospital policies say about transfusion start time?  If you have a specific statement like mine, do you monitor compliance?
 
In my opinion, if the transfusion start time is delayed (> 30 minutes in my case) and the entire transfusion event was completed within 4 hours, I do not see an issue other than non-compliance with our SOP (non compliance with SOP is something I would monitor).  If the 30 minute rule is indeed outdated, I would like to suggest new verbiage but wanted to get a feel for what others have in their policies.
 
Thanks!

Thank you goodchild you confirmed what I suspected.
 
I am new to this facility and to this position--only been here 1 month.  I asked why the IS reading was omitted and was told that the previous supervisor indicated that since the ABSC did not include a reading at IS the XM did not require it.  WHAT???????????  to say that I got red in the face is an understatement. 
 
My question is then how much digging do I need to do to report this?  How far back do I need to go? 

Hello all,
 
a bit late, but if everyone did everything right every time, we would still have < 100 % safety rate.  Having said that, I am not comfortable with the added guess work of not knowing whether or not those units of rbcs were taken out of the appropriate temperature/OR regfrig for who knows how long (ooops!!!) and then returned to Blood Bank, deemed ok. I am big on being a good steward of company's $$$, and unnecessary wastage makes my stomach hurt  .  However, the patient's safety is my ONLY concern here.  Forgive me, but I do not see how the charts, monitors, and alarms can tell me the truth about whether those units spent their time in New Orleans in June or Chicago in.. well you get the point.  At least the irreversible temperature indicators (firmly attached and not disturbed) give me some level of assurance.  Any one with better/new process, please share.  Happy Friday!!!  No spell checks please  .
 
Connie 

Hello everyone,
 
The Medical Director decided to discard the units.  He is FDA-fearing

I, too, fully support the BB vending machines.  Our sugical schedule does not warrant one, though.  We are not a high volume blood bank.  I am an IT geek and love anything that technology can do to make our jobs safer.

I am inclined to say that it would be easier to defend a final disposition of discard vs returning to general inventory...

The Joint Commission frowns upon refrigerators in OR. Nothing in writing, but every inspector asks me about it, and when I say no (emphatically!) that I don't have one, they are happy. As David states above, they could take blood out of the refrig and put it back and you wouldn't know it. We have a surgeon who is always pestering for one, saying "I just want access to blood when I need it". He's made enough noise to Administration that now I have to do coolers...just for him. Which makes me as red in the face as you Maureen.

Remote monitoring is the way to go.
 
Nowhere I have worked has relied on anyone other than blood bank staff to monitor temperatures - it's just not worth it.

My blood bank/surgery is also small, with very little usage but I still think it is the way to go - BB Vending machines.  I talk about these a lot and most folks look at me askance.

Hello everyone,
 
The Medical Director decided to discard the units.  He is FDA-fearing

I am inclined to say that it would be easier to defend a final disposition of discard vs returning to general inventory...