ISBT Label Testing

[jhaig]

I was looking for anyone that has begun testing the new ISBT sample labels in Meditech and what kind of progress you may or may not have made.

[hmust1]

Not yet...but we have a Digitrax label printer and bar code scanners on order (our current specimen label printers and scanners will not work for ISBT). Also, Meditech has installed the software "fixes" in our TEST system and we are in the process of validating that our current product labels still work with the fixes in place. We'll be receiving products labeled in either format for a few months before our blood supplier completes their ISBT implementation (expected by May '08).

I'm glad you started this thread! Please keep us posted as to your progress!!

[Kathy3171]

We are a transfusion service and do not intend to make any labels as we only thaw FFP and cryo (our supplier has prepooled frozen cryo). I have been trying to get started with Meditech ISBT implementation and have printed the tutorial on their website. What I need now are all the product labels to test. I've printed off what I can find on the ICCBBA website, but they don't include all the different barcodes, AS-5, AS-3, irradiated, leukopoor, etc. (at least I can't find them). Any help would be greatly appreiciated.

[sgoertzen]

I supervise the Transfusion Service at a pediatric hospital in California, so we will have to relabel (print new labels) for all of our aliquots and products we irradiate, wash, or pool. Currently, we buy all pre-printed labels except for just the unit number for which we print a small Codabar and eye-readable number label.

We have MediTech version 5.6.1. I am still very confused about all the product dictionaries that will be required and whether we will need to always print full face labels or just the bottom 2 quadrants. We have already purchased the scanners and printer recommended by Digitrax and I am waiting on my donor center to supply me with the sample ISBT labels they will be using for the products they will be supplying. My donor center has targeted April 1, 2008 for Go-Live with ISBT.

Currently, we use the "make components" routine rather than the "make aliquots" routine for both splitting and modifying products. Is this how the rest of you do it? I've often wondered if using the aliquot routine would be a better way to go, but I inherited the system set up this way, so I've never done the work to change it. But now.... for ISBT and having to print new labels, I'm wondering if maybe it's time to re-create my system to use "aliquots" for splitting and "components" for modifying (irradiating, washing). For you experts out there... is there any benefit to doing it that way?

For those of you who both split and irradiate.... are you planning on splitting, then relabeling, and then irradiating and relabeling again (with two separate modification steps in the computer)? If so, this is going to be much more labor intensive and slow for my staff... not to mention confusing since there will end up being SO MANY products in the computer with all the same unit number by the time we are all done with making 4 or 5 irradiated splits from each original unit. It seems like such a greater chance for error to me when only the product code changes, and not the unit number as well (i.e. A, B C or -1, -2, -3, etc.)

Any advice from anyone would be greatly appreciated!

[Richard Kriozere]

Hope this is useful from the perspective of an ICCBBA registered vendor. The ISBT128 standards and FDA require that all products, modified products, splits and divisions be bar coded. Under ISBT128 these are all new products and have their own ISBT128 product codes unlike Codabar. Hema Trax on-demand labeling which is available as a stand-alone PC product or interfaced to Meditech Magic and Client/Server has the entire 4000 plus US products in the data base.

The Unit Number or DIN in ISBT128 only identifies the original blood donor and has no connection to the productor modifiction.

You may wish to look at our web site for more information regarding on-demand printing (www.digi-trax.com)

[Mabel Adams]

How can I find the tutorial on the Meditech website?

I am just starting the ISBT conversion on Magic 5.61 Meditech with a live date of Dec. I think it would be great if some of us formed an informal email group to confer as we work out the kinks. We have only been live since January and our IT guy that helped me install just left for another job.

[Mabel Adams]

My biggest labeling problem will be pools because we can't really get pre-printed labels for the pooled unit number that is generated by Meditech, but buying a label printing system is ridiculous for 6 pools of cryo per year. Our blood center plans to offer pre-pooled cryo but not for a year or so after the ISBT change.

They tell me that I can just pool into one of the cryo bags instead of a transfer pack and just add a tie-tag that lists all the units in the pool but leave the original cryo label on the bag. Seems kind of ugly, but might work. Anyone else doing this?

[Kathy3171]

To get to the meditech tutorial (which is minimal, at best):

http://ww.meditech.com/prlab/Presentations/BBKbbTPisbt/ISBTPrint.htm

I actually found it by wandering around in the Meditech website and just happened to stumble across it. Good luck!

[Mabel Adams]

UNITEDADLABEL.COM appears to have a good list of ISBT product code labels. There are not pictures of them all yet, but there seems to be a correlation with their order code and the ISBT code (not perfect, but useful). I needed to be sure I could even buy pre-printed aliquot labels before I proceeded.

[sgoertzen]

I am beginning to test my system with some sample labels from our donor center and I am finding that the splits are not translating into the correct product code. Example: a regular FFP unit will have the product code E0701. The FFPPED (i.e. split) units all use the same ISBT product code E0701 too, but they have an A, B, or C at the end to differentiate the various product code split such as E0701A. When I scan the sample labels, everything is scanning as the regular FFP and it is apparently not seeing the A, B or C divisions to differentiate the FFP from the FFPPED units (there are volume differences and price differences so this is important). I have entered the new ISBT codes to the same products we are already using with codabar, so I'm very confused about why the computer cannot interpret the split product codes.

Also, I am noticing that the sample labels of divided products are automatically adding an A or B or C to the unit number when I scan in the product code. This would actually be good if it worked like this... since each division would still have its own unique unit number. The problem is the computer also needs to read the differences in the product codes (example E0701V00, as compared with E0701VA0, E0701VB0, and E0701VC0). It appears it just reads the E0701 to decipher the product code and then it adds the A or B or C to the unit number rather than to the product code.

Can anyone shed some light on what might be the problem? My IT department has been of no help whatsoever and don't seem to understand any of this.

[Richard Kriozere]

Sheri:

It sounds as if you have a Meditech problem interpreting the ISBT128 Product Code divisions and suggest discussing with them.

Mabel:

Have you considered a lower cost Hema Trax stand-alone PC IBBT128 on-demand print system from Digi-Trax? Has complete ISBT128 product Code data base and is keep current with software updates, plus you can add your own products.

[Mabel Adams]

Sheri, I think there was something in the MT tutorial mentioned above about how MT would continue to create aliquots using the A, B suffixes, but you can control whether they print or not, I think. Maybe it wasn't in the tutorial but was in a DTS to fix how it printed aliquots. I am sorry I don't have the DTS number at home. I will try to look Monday. I remember thinking that it meant MT wasn't really going to ISBT, they had just come up with a band-aid.

Richard, For the 6 times a year we would print bar codes the printer would have to be really, really cheap.

[Mabel Adams]

For those of you that get pre-pooled cryo, does it come labeled as ABO only or both ABO and Rh?

[Mary]

ABO & Rh.