Blood unit retypes

[mcj8674 1]

I work in an organization with 2 hospitals. Hospital A receives all the blood products from the donor center, retypes them and distributes some to Hospital B. Does Hospital B then have to retype the unit again when they receive it?

[David Saikin 1,361]

The way I read TRM.40450 is that unless hospital A also performs the compatibility testing you would have to confirm the unit type when received from hospital A.

You should call CAP or CMMS to get their definitive answer.

[Ward_X 61]

Just from a safety standpoint, receiving products transported from an outside facility should be retyped, regardless if that outside facility is in your "network."

For example, even if a historical donor donating at a regular frequency gives red blood cells directly to Hospital B, the unit itself is still retyped at that given point and before transfusion.

[SMILLER 860]

Like many systems, we have an ancillary center where all of our outpatient transfusions are performed.  Other than releasing products form the BB computer system, they do no testing at all.  We ship units from our inventory to them after appropriate compatibility testing.  We do all testing at the hospital. 

We also have two smaller hospitals within our regional system (Ascension), that share our BB computer system.  On occasion, they send short-dated units to us.  We do not re-type these units.  Note that the initial unit typing, whether here or at a sister hospital, is recorded on the same BB computer system. We are FDA/JCAHO inspected.  

Scott

[Baby Banker 71]

You might look at whether the two blood banks have the same medical director and CLIA number.  

[SMILLER 860]

Just as a side note (see my post, above), our BB computer system is used by 3 hospitals with two different medical directors and CLIA numbers.

Whatever you want to do, you should probably talk to someone at an agency that does your inspections.

Scott

[slsmith 50]

We send blood around the system all the time and once one site has performed the retype after receiving it from the blood supplier the second does not have to. We share a computer system , Medical Director but all have different CLIA numbers. This never has been a problem with the accrediting agencies AABB and CAP, nor with the FDA.