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U.S / international blood banking


RR1

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I've really enjoyed learning about the similarities/ differences in blood banking between the U.S vs UK . How are your blood donor centres managed?- are they all part of the hospital blood bank- or run as independent organisations?

It would also be nice to hear from others around the world as to the set up of their hospitals and donor centres too.

Thanks

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:)I would recommend that you read Jeffrey McCullough's Transfusion Medicine, 2nd edition, Elsevier, Churchill, Livingstone, 2005, ISBN 0-443-06648-5. It gives an excellent description of the US Blood Banking System (at least, in my opinion).

If you can't find a copy Rashmi, or can't afford a copy, I lend you mine.

Edited by Malcolm Needs
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In Saudi Arabia, the donor centers are located in the hospitals. The majority of the hospitals and laboratories currently are not accredited by any agency, so the quality of donor selection, screening, testing, and labeling varies greatly. You would not believe some of the blood components that have been brought to my transfusion service with the physician's order to use them because "blood is blood"!

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The US blood banking industry is a hodgepodge of stand-alone independent donor centers andhospital based donor centers. Our main collector is probably the American Red Cross, but there are more than a few other national and regional centers that collect (fixed site and mobile operations). Due to constant shortages of supply, many large hospitals have there own donor rooms, with marker testing performed by the Red Cross or another outside agency, if not performed in house.

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Thanks Dalene, it must be constantly hard work for you to trying to implement better clinician understanding. What guidelines and testing requirements do you follow for screening the units?

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Hi David,

Things are obviously a lot easier for us in the UK than it is for you folk. We are very lucky to have the National Blood Service (Now called the NHSBT), who coordinate all donor collections, testing and selection for the hospitals together with reference work.

So, many of your hospital labs are also perform donor testing - I suppose this does make the work more varied and interesting- but it must be tough on you folk to have to deal with this all.

I'll try not to complain about my job anymore!

Thanks for info

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Hi R1R1,

Having recommended Jeff McCullough's book, here is another book that makes really interesting reading on the subject, and goes into the history of why and how the US Blood Services have evolved. It is BLOOD An Epic History of Medicine and Commerce by Douglas Starr, Little, Brown and Company 1999 (ISBN: 0-316-91146-1).

I'm afaid that I do have to say that it is a little "US-centric" (individuals such as Robin Coombs, Rob Race and Patrick Mollison hardly get a mention) but that does not take away from the interest.

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In Saudi Arabia, the donor centers are located in the hospitals. The majority of the hospitals and laboratories currently are not accredited by any agency, so the quality of donor selection, screening, testing, and labeling varies greatly. You would not believe some of the blood components that have been brought to my transfusion service with the physician's order to use them because "blood is blood"!

Hi dalene, do you have haemovigilance reporting there.....or is that still work in progress?

It's really great learning how blood banks are progressing in other countries, some of the issues certainly

bring back memories of the problems we encountered over the years.

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One difference in the various countries, is the distance from hospital to blood supplier. We are 110 miles (175km?) from out blood supplier.

We try to maintain a good supply of red cells, without 'hoarding'. We also have a platelet stock rotation 3 times/week (fortunately, we have return privleges for RBCs and PLTs).

They are also our immunohematology reference lab. We don't send much to them, because we attempt to ID most everything in-house, because of the distance.

Linda Frederick

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The furthest hospital from the Tooting Blood Centre is Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother Hospital in Margate at about 80 miles, and we don't get a lot of Reference work from them either. However, apart from having a higher level of group O, D Negative than normal (and it is not that much higher), I don't think their stock level is that high.

We reckon on getting emergency blood to them (by blues and twos) in two hours.

I'm not sure of the furthest distance a hospital lies from its "local" Blood Centre within the NHSBT (but I do know that it is further than Tooting to QEQM.

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Hi David,

Things are obviously a lot easier for us in the UK than it is for you folk. We are very lucky to have the National Blood Service (Now called the NHSBT), who coordinate all donor collections, testing and selection for the hospitals together with reference work.

So, many of your hospital labs are also perform donor testing - I suppose this does make the work more varied and interesting- but it must be tough on you folk to have to deal with this all.

I'll try not to complain about my job anymore!

Thanks for info

Was wondering in UK at ur centre approx how much time are u able to spend for donor screening ?

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In the UK the National Blood Service does all donor screening. The hospital blood banks in general just test patient samples, and issue the blood...it's great not having to worry about donor testing too!

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Huh, it's alright for some.

Some of us work for the NHSBT (formally NBS or National Blood Service) you know!

I don't believe you....what's their name???!:tongue:

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