meditech, isbt, red cross and pheresed FFP

[suem]

Hi Everyone!

We are a Meditech Client Server site version 5.54. We are having difficulties with setting up pheresed FFP units for ISBT. We receive all our supplies from Red Cross. Red Cross informs us that for pheresed FFP, each "part" will have the same donor # and which part it will be will be captured in the product code (7th character).

The problem is, there is no way to get these products into the system. Our original plan was to create a product for each part, ie. FFP2 for part 2, etc. However, as we quickly realized, you cannot enter the same ISBT code in the product dictionary....and although Meditech will capture the division, you still can't enter the same donor # on more than one product.

Meditech only uses the first 5 characters of the product code in the product dictionary, so the fact that the product code's 7th character differentiates it, does not solve the problem.

I am hoping someone can offer us some words of advice.

[Lcsmrz]

The Meditech code 'FFP2' will work, since your pcodes are facility-defined. It is associated in the product dictionary with the ISBT barcode for AFFP,second unit. We do the same for RBC2 and PHPLT2.

[suem]

Lcsmrz,

Thanks for the response. Perhaps you could enlighten me further. We can't seem to locate a separate and distinct ISBT code for part 2, part 3, etc for FFP (keeping in mind that Meditech only uses the first 5 characters of the ISBT product code) and you can't use an ISBT code in the Product dictionary more than once.

[Lcsmrz]

I got a list of ISBT128 barcodes that my supplier (non-ARC) will be using. I built the products that I wanted (RBC, RBC2, PHPLT, PHPLT2, etc) and entered the supplied ISBT128 barcodes for the corresponding product.

It only matters what barcodes your supplier will be using on the units they will be sending you. Rare ones (for our site) were not worth the trouble of building into the product dictionary, nor were products built for which our use is doubtful (i.e., irrad FFP?). I have <10 products in my dictionary, but we're a smalll site; my biggest decision was whether to make irradiated units a separate pcode. (I voted against it.)

Our supplier rarely imports units, and I'll deal with them at that time -- although not preferred, you can always use Unit Entry and manually enter the pcode, rather than scan it.

Here's an ARC link to their Codabar to ISBT128 translation table to find the current code they are using, but I would not build all of them: http://www.redcross.org/images/pdfs/biomed/trans_tab_codabar.pdf

Am I understanding your question correctly?

[suem]

Lcsmrz,

Thanks for the suggestion. We definately will be getting pheresed FFP, so we know it will be an issue for us, since each part, due to the way Meditech uses the product codes, will have the same product code.

Using manual results entry was not a solution we came up with. I'll share this with the LIS person and the Blood Bank supervisor.

[lwalton]

Actually you can enter multiple apheresis FFP "parts" with the same DIN and same 5 digit product code in Meditech. Meditech doesn't really do aliquots/divisions the way ISBT intends, but they do have a work-around that is feasable. Meditech can capture first and second level divisions, so all you have to do is bring the parts in as first level divisions. I just tried it in our test system and it worked just fine. I have the ISBT products built as the 5-digit ISBT E-codes, for instance E0898 is FFP APHR ACDA <200ML. If you bring a unit in as a first level division, Meditech will capture the A in the seventh character (E0898VA0) and bring the unit in as W200608062601A, for example. You can then bring in the next part as another first level division, W200608062601B. The information is all trackable in the system; look at the E/E Other prompt. We were very confused at first too because we were also under the impression that Meditech only used the first 5 digits of the product code. But they put on some seminars that better explained it. The information you need to read the last 3 digits of the product code is hard-coded into the enhancements that provide ISBT-capability. That's why you don't need to include it as part of the product code. We have built 110 ISBT products and have found Meditech to be quite workable overall.

Edited June 27, 2008 by lwalton
add additional info

[macarton]

Check out United Blood Services at the following website:

http://www.unitedbloodservices.org/

We are a LifeSouth customer with UBS as a seconday. They are already on ISBT and LS is still in FDA. They have several hundred product code bar codes for ISBT you can print off. We are on 5.55 Meditech CS and I used these to set up our system. It came in handy when LS imported. We were the only hospital that could take them.