Pre-Printed ISBT 128 Labels.

[jmthompson]

I was hoping someone could tell me a reason why a blood center wouldn't be able to use pre-printed ISBT 128 labels. I know of some centers using them as a back up. Any help would be great.

Thanks....: James

[Cliff]

Hi James,

I can see how that would become quickly unmanageable with the volume of labels you'd need to have in stock, as well as the difficulty in ensuring they were applied to the correct product.

Personally I would not want to, but that is an individual centers decision.

[Mabel Adams]

They can't very well use pre-printed expiration dates .

[Franklyn]

Sunquest will not be fully ISBT 128 ready until v6.4, which has no current release date. I contacted the AABB regarding compliance with their ISBT 128 standards and it was suggested that we purchase and use pre-printed ISBT 128 labels. So they must be acceptable by the AABB. The whole ISBT issue is a real headache as the May 2008 deadline is an AABB thing, not an FDA thing. The ARC will not be ISBT 128 compliant for at least two more years (70% of our supply is from the ARC) while Lifesource (ITXM) will go live on April 8th, 2008 (30% of our supply). I anticipate a LOT of labeling errors until this all gets sorted out.

Does anyone know if you can mix ISBT 128 and codabar labels on the same unit? Don't tell me "NO" until you have physically tried it. I don't have any means of testing it but it theory it should work. That might make things a bit easier, provided it doesn't run afoul of some other regualtion...

[dpflanz]

Does anyone know if you can mix ISBT 128 and codabar labels on the same unit? Don't tell me "NO" until you have physically tried it. I don't have any means of testing it but it theory it should work. That might make things a bit easier, provided it doesn't run afoul of some other regualtion...

Hello

As I understand the barcodes are read differently by the computer system (SOFT donor for the collection center & Misys for the transfusion services). We can only have one or the other not both...

Deborah Pflanz, MT (ASCP)

Presbyterian Infusion Center/Apheresis and Donor Services

201 Cedar SE, Suite #4620

Albuquerque, NM 87106

505-563-1310

Fax: 505-224-7156

dpflanz@phs.org

[bbbirder]

For the past couple of years we have rarely had 'imports' from a blood center that was on ISBT to our blood center that was not, then they shipped to us.

Our center relabled with codabar product codes. The blood type and expiration were left. We could read them without problem.

I agree that this is an AABB issue, not an FDA issue. AABB will need to have some flexibility in its interpretation of standards for a time, considering the difficulties that both blood centers and transfusion services are having with their various computer vendors.

Linda Frederick

[Mabel Adams]

Our blood supplier switched to ISBT last week. We are getting "transitional" labeled units from them now and they say that as long as they could import a codabar unit, we could continue to see them. There are 3 permutations of transitional labels, one very short-term and the other two for imports--either that they then modify or not.

Whatever the original unit number, it stays on the unit. An ISBT unit number may be added as well. The product code stays codabar unless they have to modify the product.

I am trying to settle the nightmare now that one ICCBBA database for label priniting (not the product code database that I have looked at) lists 7 day plts as "pheresis" and 5 day plts as "apheresis" and I have to get my pre-pprinted labels printed the right way. I hope to get some answers soon. If anyone out there knows the answer, let me know.

[Mabel Adams]

Apparently the database from Hematrax that my supplier uses has 7 day plts as "pheresis" while the ICCBBA database has them as "apheresis", but the FDA has switched its policy and, even though the blood supplier's labels had been given FDA approval it is now acceptable for certain label changes (like from "pheresis" to "apheresis" ) to be made without resubmitting the labels to FDA for new approval. I am a little vague on this, so you will want to clarify with FDA if this affects you. Anyway, we can have all the new labels say "apheresis" which is the ISBT way, according to my email from the FDA matt person and clarification from my blood supplier.