Notifying Patients About Atypical Antibodies

[Mary**]

I would be interested in hearing about your process for notifying patients that they have atypical antibodies. We are planning on using a wallet card. If anyone has an example of a letter to patients explaining what to do with the card, I hope you would share it with me.

:fingerscr

[Deny Morlino]

If the patient is still in-house when the AB is identified, I personally take the card to the patient. It is good customer service and gives the patient a chance to ask any questions that they may think of at the time. It also helps the patient feel a bit more confident if they have future questions related to blood bank to be able to put a face on the nameless department. We have had good feedback with our process and educating the patient helps them feel more in control.

If the patient has been discharged, I forward a letter along with the card to the patient encouraging them to call the blood bank and ask for me. Again this gives me a chance to handle questions and gives the patient more familiarity with blood bank.

Edited December 22, 2010 by Deny Morlino

[khalidm3]

If the patient is still in-house when the AB is identified, I personally take the card to the patient. It is good customer service and gives the patient a chance to ask any questions that they may think of at the time. It also helps the patient feel a bit more confident if they have future questions related to blood bank to be able to put a face on the nameless department. We have had good feedback with our process and educating the patient helps them feel more in control.

If the patient has been discharged, I forward a letter along with the card to the patient encouraging them to call the blood bank and ask for me. Again this gives me a chance to handle questions and gives the patient more familiarity with blood bank.

Excellent! It is my dream to work with such a patient caring person/facility. If I would see all this in my area.

[Deny Morlino]

The process is actually based upon a suggestion made by an inspector (who just happened to be a phenominal blood banker) we had some years back. It sounded like a good idea so we took it and ran with it focusing on the customer service aspect of the process as it makes our lives in blood bank easier in the long run.

[Steven Jeff]

Hi

We send out a standard letter from the Consultant Haematologist (see attached). However, the antibody confirmation and card are tested and printed by our local RCI laboratory (Malcolm Needs lab) who produce with the card an excellent explanation for the patient which is sent out with the standard letter attached. Malcolm may be able to send you a copy of their explanation letter

Like Deny, if the patient is still an in-patient I will go and see the patient with the card and letter for the same reasons - good customer relations etc.

Regards

Steve

:)

ab letter.doc

[Mary**]

Good ideas. Thanks to everyone. Does anyone also notify the attending physician?

[Steven Jeff]

Does anyone also notify the attending physician?

We don't, the results are entered into the blood transfusion record on the computer with appropriate references to the NHSBT RCI lab and the report issued and filed on the patients clinical records.

Steve

[Dr. Pepper]

We had a wallet card program years ago that we gave up on because it didn't seem to work. We never got the info back from our own patients who we did have records on, and figured it wasn't happening in other hospitals either, which is where the true value of the cards lies. (One bright exception where it work: we got a call from a patient, now in her eighties, who presented her 30-year old card at another hospital. She was upset because she didn't get her card back. We made her up another obtained from our blood center and wished her well. By the way, I called the other BB and her antibody was not currently detectable.)

That being said, thank you Steve and Denny for the encouragement. Times have indeed changed. Patient safety, education and empowerment and customer service are on the front burner of the stove at every hospital. Perhaps a personal touch and a little more education would have helped us in our failed project years ago. I am going to resurrect this. Thanks again.

[L106]

Deny - You've got a great way of handling this! Kudos! I agree that the face-to-face encounter is a wonderful way to increase patient satisfaction.

I can just hear what some of the patients probably tell their visitors: "That nice person from the Blood Bank actually took the time and came up here to talk to me about why it took them so long to find blood for me...." etc.

Donna

[rravkin@aol.com]

Deny,

Again, this is a fantastic practice. I would like to see it implemented as a regular part of blood bank practice through AABB standards.

[khalidm3]

Deny,

Again, this is a fantastic practice. I would like to see it implemented as a regular part of blood bank practice through AABB standards.

Ditto .....Really fantastic, It is an extra ordinary example of patient/client care. I feel proud that one of blood bank has so keen policy.

[Eagle Eye]

Our MD enters canned comment for each antibody (when id'd first time). That includes clinical significance and frequency of finding the blood.

Good ideas. Thanks to everyone. Does anyone also notify the attending physician?

[Deny Morlino]

Thanks all for the compliments. It was an inspector who initiated the idea, we just took it and ran with it. In the competitive marketplace today the one-on-one customer service touches seem to make a very large impact.

I did forget to mention that we do notify the ordering physician. The only drawback is next time the same physician may not be the ordering physician. For this reason we suggest the patient wave the card we issue them madly at any medical person who mentions transfusion to them.