Annual letter to physicians-reporting infectious diseases

[conwaysbb]

I was wondering if anyone can attach a letter that is sent annually to all physicians reminding them to report all cases of possible infectious disease transmission from patients whom were transfused and of adverse effects of tissue use as per the following AABB standards.

1. BB/TS 7.4.6 Encourage reporting of transfusion transmitted disease.

2. BB/TS 7.4.2.2 The Blood Bank shall have a process for investigating adverse effects…of tissue use for prompt reporting to source facility.

Admittedly, I not convinced it should be the blood bank's responsibility to ensure that the process is in place since we do not distribute any tissue. It is issued by the OR.

How do you meet these standards, which are supported by the FDA regulations?

[Cliff]

Our transfusion service is not (currently) responsible for tissue, we do this process for blood products. We do not have our tissue programs assessed by aaBB. JCAHO expects you to have this in control at an organizational level. We had the directors of our different tissue areas present their own info at our recent JCAHO survey.

We have thousands of credentialed physicians. Instead we chose to send an e-mail twice a year too all of the physicians. We keep it very simple.

"The [Your Institution] Transfusion Service would like to encourage all [Your facilities] clinicians to please notify us of any suspected cases of transfusion-transmitted infectious disease. To report a case, please contact [blood Bank Medical Director contact info]."

[conwaysbb]

Our transfusion service is not (currently) responsible for tissue, we do this process for blood products. We do not have our tissue programs assessed by aaBB. JCAHO expects you to have this in control at an organizational level. We had the directors of our different tissue areas present their own info at our recent JCAHO survey.

We have thousands of credentialed physicians. Instead we chose to send an e-mail twice a year too all of the physicians. We keep it very simple.

"The [Your Institution] Transfusion Service would like to encourage all [Your facilities] clinicians to please notify us of any suspected cases of transfusion-transmitted infectious disease. To report a case, please contact [blood Bank Medical Director contact info]."

According to the AABB assessor, a Transfusion Service is still responsible for ensuring that the hospital encourages reporting of any adverse effects to tissue use, even if the Transfusion Service does not dispense, which is supported by the aforementioned standard.

I guess I could just include a blurb about reporting any adverse effects of Tissue use to the appropriate OR individuals with their names and phone numbers.

Thanks for your comments

[Cliff]

I completely disagree with the assessor you had. I think the transfusion service medical director should work closely with the person who administers the tissue programs, and possibly have them present regular reports to the transfusion committee, but I think it is unreasonable for aaBB assessors to dictate how a facility decides to manage itself.

[conwaysbb]

I completely disagree with the assessor you had. I think the transfusion service medical director should work closely with the person who administers the tissue programs, and possibly have them present regular reports to the transfusion committee, but I think it is unreasonable for aaBB assessors to dictate how a facility decides to manage itself.

At the recent AABB audioconference on changes in the 23rd Edition of Standards, it was stated that if you do not have control over or are repsonsible for Tissue, then you could not be cited for this standard. I wish I had this information at the time I was inspected as I would have used that info when disagreeing with the lead assessor and also use this when responding to the AABB. It would also have helped if when the AABB reviews the citations and responses that they would have noted on my response that under root cause it was stated the Blood Bank does not receive or dispense tissue and that this was under the control of the OR, and removed that specific citation, but I think this is asking too much.