Patient transferred to another facility during blood adminsitration

[BBK710]

Does anyone have a policy for handling cases where patients are transferred to another facility when the transfusion of blood or components has been started but not completed? How do you handle the medical record for the completion of transfusion, adverse reactions etc?

[Deny Morlino]

At present, nursing makes note of the fact that the patient is transferred to facility whomever at whatever time it occurs. The medical record receives the original; blood bank receives a copy as does the facility the patient is transferring to.

A better solution would be to follow up with a call to the receiving facility to determine the outcome of the transfusion of the unit in progress. The frequency of transferring a patient while receiving a blood product is low enough it should not be an additional burden for follow up here. Thanks for making me consider this closer!

[Bill]

Transfers from our facility are usually a 2 hour ride and the transporting company paramedics(or RN) have been inserviced to complete the transfusion record; the original is put on ambulance medical record (presumably onto new inpatient record) and the second copy returned to our blood bank when ambulance gets back into town.

[AMcCord]

We have a situation similar to Bill. If the product is infused during ground transport, the flow sheet is completed and returned to us by the ambulance service. For patients who fly out and blood is infusing when they reach the new facility, we send a copy of a paper flow sheet with a stamped, self-addressed envelope and a request that the form be completed and returned. We actually get pretty good compliance.