TreeMoss

I remember being really confused in school as I was trying to copy the swirling that the grad student did when reading his tubes. When I went to the hospital for my clinical rotations, the blood bank supervisor taught me to hold the tubes with the button up and just tip the tubes over the finger on my other hand and watch the button as it came off the tube. This has worked so well for me all of these years in the blood bank.

Yes, we use a tag attacher gun to label the units with the crossmatch slip. There is sufficient plastic at the top of the bag to pierce for the tag even if there is not a hole. I think we are more concerned with the MLS poking his/her finger!

We crosscheck our 0.8% cells every month in the gel cards. We have Ortho cells and just test the new cells we receive and the current cells in use. We have a diluted anti-D that gives a 1+ reaction to use as our anti-sera. I would think that the same method could be used to check the Ortho cells against the Grifols cells. Just test to see that the cells react as they should.

We are a level 2 trauma center -- when we get a full trauma paged, we pack up 2 uncrossmatched packed cells and have the unit information written on a form that goes with the blood cooler to the ED -- pretty much what you are doing, but only with 2 units.

We switched over to Adsol units -- we are a level 3 NICU with 28 beds. Eastern Idaho Regional Medical Center.

We put the sticky patient identification label on the blood unit and attach a paper "crossmatch card" to the unit with a plastic tagger. When we issue the blood products, we check the information the courier brings with both the patient sticker and the crossmatch card.

A lecturer I listened to discussed MTP and stated that using Rh positive packed cells keeps the patient alive. He said that if anti-D is built, it can be dealt with when the woman gets pregnant. If she dies because she didn't get transfused with Rh positive packed cells, she certainly won't even have the opportunity to become pregnant. So, there's that.

We were lucky to use embossable armbands that were Biologics prior to St. John's. Unfortunately, these armbands are no longer available. This box will last us many years, I'm sure. When they are all used up, we'll be going to the red Blood Bank wristbands that are available. Currently, we use the MobiLab system -- when hematology specimens are labeled with these wristband labels, we are able to use those specimens for blood bank purposes so that the patient does not have to be redrawn.

I suspect it was one dose of 4-300 mcl. Since we're not pharmacists, we sometimes fail to use the correct terminology when speaking of a "dose". This amount would have been indicated from the results of the Kleihauer-Betke stain for fetal hemoglobin.

We have 4 units of Group A liquid plasma on stock. As it becomes short-dated, we are able to use it on other patients. The liquid plasma is generally used for MTP patients, but we have the choice to use it as needed.

Thank you for sharing this great news with us. Congratulations -- you've earned it.

Our facility uses MobiLab. This system prints labels after scanning the patient identification band. The specimens are then labeled at the patient bedside when collected. We have Meditech that uses Bar-coded Transfusion Administration. Nurses scan the patient ID band and unit identifiers (DIN, Product, and Blood Type barcode labels). If something doesn't match, an error message pops up to return the product to the blood bank. This system is used for all transfusions except some emergencies (i.e., Massive Transfusion Protocols). It works very well. In the past, we used Biologics wristband label with patient ID. These worked like a credit card -- labels were made from embossed plates and attached to specimens -- so I've never used the Typenex bands. With the Biologics and now our current wristbands, we are able to use the blood specimens that were collected previously for CBCs, etc., for our blood bank work if the specimens were labeled with MobiLab. There was no reason to have to stick the patient again for a blood bank specimen. This system works.

I think that the liquid plasma we get from our blood center has a 26-day expiration (21 + 5). CPD/CP2D blood has a 21-day expiration, so that made sense to me.

We do an annual temperature validation of our blood coolers for a 24 hour time period. Since we have validated the coolers to show that they maintain the appropriate temperature over the 24 hours, we do not monitor when they are in use during the year. If they still have ice in the bag on return, they have maintained the temperature.

We are a level 2 trauma center. Our original MTP order includes FFP (including liquid plasma) x 6, packed cells x 6, and pltph x 1. Blood tests drawn with that original order are ABG, CBC, PT, PTT, Fibrinogen, D-Dimer, TEG, Chem 7, and Ionized Calcium. Every hour for 3 hours (if the protocol goes that long), we order ABG, CBC without diff, PT, PTT, Fibrinogen, D-Dimer, TEG, Chem 7 and Ionized Ca. After the first pack of blood products is taken, blood bank orders in the next pack if told to continue. Second pack and every other pack is the same products but also includes pooled cryo x 2. If the MTP is an OB patient, the pooled cryo are sent with the first pack.