to sticker...or not to sticker... that is the ?

[Pailloz]

Do you allow staff to use unit identification stickers on manual logs or forms??

Has anyone heard of any citations or regs on this?

[Mabel Adams]

Yes, and once we go to ISBT I expect everyone will be whining if we run out of stickers on a unit because accurately writing those long things will be tough. We do antigen typing on paper because our BBIS is hopeless for it. I prefer the barcoded stickers so we can scan the data into the computer later. Nurses use them in charts. Those are the main uses now for us.

[adiescast]

We allow the use of stickers, but nursing hardly ever does it. There have been times when I wished they had used a sticker because reading their handwriting after we image the record in Medical Information is a trick! Also, as Mabel noted, there aren't always enough stickers to go around. Sometimes we get a unit from the blood center with no stickers at all.

[Mirage]

Our lab uses the stickers as well. We are using patient testing, antigen typing, donor retyping worksheets until our updated computer system is in place this fall. All of our work uses the unit stickers and I've never heard of any citations or defieciencies because of this. Did your lab receive a deficiency? If so, what regulation was deficient?

[rcurrie]

There is no problem with using stickers from the units that I am aware of except for one: I had a nurse return a unit of blood. She had removed the last sticker for use on the patient's chart. I am not talking about the last sticker from the back- I am talking about the one used to label the unit. I asked her how she wanted to pay for the unit- cash or credit card, because she just bought it.

BC

[Eagle Eye]

we use the sticker on our manual worksheets.( antigen typing, retyping). Never heard of any citation.

[Mabel Adams]

I called our Med Records dept. They scan the charts within 3-5 years so label adherence beyond that is no issue in charts. She told me they are only required to keep the chart information for 10 years, much less the paper charts. Inside the lab, it would depend on whether the record needs to be maintained on paper for a long period or not. I have 20 year old log books with unit number stickers in them showing no sign of falling off. Address labels are a different story. I had to tape them all on my old panel sheets. Now I require handwritten name and DOB at least. Some of the heat-based labels fade over time. Your blood supplier may be able to tell you how long they trust their unit label adherence.