Greetings from Winona, Minnesota

[Janet D]

Hi All,

I am a section coordinator for Blood Bank, Serology and Urinalysis at a small community hospital. We have one tech covering these areas each day and others in heme, chem, micro, and special chem each day. Working at a small hospital as the only real, or maybe not so real, blood bank person means I have to work at keeping current and I try to get to continuing education whenever possible.

This forum should be a great help for me as I love any and all information.

Our hopital is using Cerner Millenium software and so I use the PathNet blood bank application and I spent a fair amount of time working with the computer people in Kansas City setting up/designing our system.

Janet D

[Cliff]

Hello and welcome to BloodBankTalk.

[rcurrie]

Urinalysis and Blood Bank- what a great way to detect hemolytic transfusion reactions! The Generalist tech has a much harder job trying to stay current than those of us who are dedicated to blood banking. Been there- done that. One thing you can do is subscribe to as many automatic update services as you can. I subscribe to several free FDA email publications, so I know immediately when a new guidance is issued or when there are industry recalls, etc. Also, AABB has several different publications to keep you up-to-date. I recommend the AABB Weekly Report, which the AABB will send you a link to each Friday of publication. You can also access it on their website as long as you are a member (institutional or individual). The AABB has a publication called the CFR Mini-Handbook ($100 for members, $120 for non-members) that is an excellent way to keep current with the federal regulations relating to blood banking, transfusion medicine, and cellular therapy (21 CFR Parts 210, 211, 600, 601, 606, 607, 610, 630, 640, 660, 820, 1270, 1271, as well as 42 CFR 493). Good luck!

Bob Currie, MT(ASCP)

QA Officer

Scott & White Blood Center

Temple, TX