izzyfig

Hello everyone!
 
I'm a new member to the site and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Izzy and I'm a Medical Technologist in Houston, TX. I've been a med tech for only a year and have only ever wanted to work in blood bank. I really love everything that I read from this site and am always coming back for more so I decided why not just join. So here I am!
 
I'm hoping that as a fairly new tech that I can grow a lot more from this site.

Hello everyone!
 
I'm a new member to the site and I wanted to introduce myself. My name is Izzy and I'm a Medical Technologist in Houston, TX. I've been a med tech for only a year and have only ever wanted to work in blood bank. I really love everything that I read from this site and am always coming back for more so I decided why not just join. So here I am!
 
I'm hoping that as a fairly new tech that I can grow a lot more from this site.

Look through an old AABB Accreditation Information Manual, that's where I last saw it.  That was at least 10 years ago.
 
We did an extensive validation throughout our institution mimicking what happens to a unit of blood when it leaves here.  We took a unit of blood and split it in two, then place a TempTale temperature monitor in the middle and thoroughly rubber banded the unit back together.  We placed it in a fridge overnight.  Then when a product was being issued we took our fake unit out and had it travel the same route that the unit did.  Sat on the same counters, went to the same patient care area, sat on the counter there.  Then after the nurse took the real unit we took our fake unit back to the blood bank and let it sit on the counter until a total of 40 minutes elapsed.  We did this 10 times to each of the main areas we issued in our organization.  It took weeks to do.
 
We were able to "prove" that 30 minutes is an acceptable time for a unit to be out of our blood bank.  Sadly no one has ever asked to see this validation.

I would take the temperature of units returned and not go via a 30 minute rule unless you have performed a validation study confirming that units remain at 10C or less during that time period.
STAY AWAY from the 30 minute myth.

By elimiating the post antibody screen, aren't you removing the chance of detecting an increase in titre of an unidentified antibody that was too low to identify, but the titre now has risen post blood? Anti-E particularly could be missed.

Only  57 more shifts and I will no longer have to worry about this nonsense.  For those of you who do, I feel truly sorry.  The insanity seems to keep getting worse with each passing year and new set of bureaucrats.  Maybe I could be a consultant for some of these agencies.  They certainly need some common sense guidance.