Sunquest Blood Bank module

[DPruden]

We may be switching blood bank computer systems in the near future due to some consolidation/sponsorship changes.:raincloud

We are currently using HCLL by Mediware and will be going to Sunquest for the whole lab.

The last time I used Sunquest blood bank module, it was pretty bad. Does anyone have any newer experience with this system? Thanks!

[pdavenport]

We're using Sunquest 6.3. It's terrrible.

[Gkloc]

Im in the process of validating the Sunquest upgrade and its horrible

[tbostock]

I used Sunquest for many years at my previous job, and did the conversion to 6.3 right before I left. Pros and cons:

Pros:

I thought the reports for Blood Bank were great; you can get tons of statistics, information, etc. Other systems I have used were inferior.

Once you really know it and are comfortable with it, it's OK.

The Blood Bank tech support people were FANTASTIC.

Cons:

Difficult to train new people on the system; it's confusing with all of the codes, etc. Workflow is a little choppy.

You cannot document the visual inspection of the units at entry into the system; a regulatory flaw that I complained about profusely, and Sunquest would not fix it. You can free text a comment, or make a visual inspection test in the function where you do the type recheck of the units as a workaround to this problem.

Wishing you the best on a successful transition; I know it's hard when you get something like this pushed on you.

[mrhelton]

I used SunQuest for years at my previous job -- I loved it -- the support from the company is fantastic. It is very flexible and the reports are great.

[conwaysbb]

Having changed myself from Hemocare to Sunquest in the last two years, I personally would not recommend this system to anyone!!!

Here are a couple of reasons. The primary reason is that Sunquest does not have a QA warning for when an individual has either a present antibody or a history of an antibody from performing just a immediate spin x-match. In order for this to be accomplished in any form, you need to purchase the electronic crossmatch module and even then it is not complete. If I had known this one issue, I would have highly reccommended that we not go back to Sunquest. (we previously had used sunquest prior to hemocare). This is a very basic idea and requirment!!! All the other systems I had looked at had this basic QA warning. The reply form Sunquest that my staff have some responsibility to know that they need to include an AHG phase of testing, is just plain ignorant.

There is no QA warning when you send a unit back to your supplier for an unacceptable reason and you get the same unit back (they told me this would never happen. I guess they forgot about Murphy's Law).

At this time, when you modify a unit changing the ISBT product code, there is no QA check for extending the expiration date and/or time of the modified product from the original product. I.E. irradiating a unit/ splitting a unit, etc. This problem has been known for several years. There was even a bulletin sent out to tall Sunquest users (happened before my going live, so I didn't know about this issue). In addition they stated it was slated for an enhancement at a later date. When they finally admitted to me there was an issue and sne t me the bulletin, they still hadn't even begun to work on getting this into a future release and could not tell me when they would.

Having to bring this up on to different facilities, there were some other issues that are unique to a multi-system site. If you would like to contact me, please e-mail me at conwaym at sjhmc dot org.

The assistance during implemetation is OK. Not any better or any worse from any other system I have ever implemented. However, after implementation, the assistance and follow-up is poor.

The actual cost of the system from what they stated is also not what it cost us to re-build it to our needs as there was additional assitance to what we needed. As we were also coming back to Sunquest we had old codes in there that we could not get rid of so our maintenance files are enormous. With the requirement that you can only use up to a certain amount of characters, this is also problematic.

Of course you also know that this is not a true windows based platform and maintenance files and reports are also still a roll and scoll (menu) driven system.

But that is just my opinion :-).

Alas, because this was our legacy system and we use Sunquest as our main LIS, it was far cheaper to go with Sunquest and since we were in a financial bind that is what we did. I guess the old adage that you get what you pay for still applies.

[L106]

Wow....Thank you to everyone for sharing your experience/opinions. (It's good to keep up on what else is out there.)

[Joanne P. Scannell]

Adding in my 2 cents ...

I often find myself saying 'Well, the FDA APPROVED this!', with and incredulous shrug on my shoulders.

Oh, do keep in mind that there is NO perfect or near perfect software out there for Blood Bank so just do the best you can with what you've got and put in 'checks and balances' for the areas where there aren't any.

One of our biggest pet peeves is that there are way too many times that multiple techs cannot access the same patient in various BB applications and this is VERY frustrating (if not dangerous) during emergencies. Example: You cannot allocate FFP (BOP) and/or crossmatch (BOP using a different Accession #) while someone is issuing blood (BPI). Imagine if McDonald's software worked that way! Another example of why I believe their software engineers don't talk to each other and that whoever is the project manager never worked in a real live Blood Bank/Transfusion Service.

Edited January 4, 2011 by JPCroke

[DPruden]

Thanks for all the input!

[Elizabeth Pailloz]

Having worked with all of the following systems(hemoCare/MediTech/SunQust/Cerner) my 2cents is Sunquest is a very good LAB system and an average/fair Blood Bank system. I agree that the many, many many code make initial Blood Bank education challenging. The builds of the products,QA failures, flags overrides are individualized and therefore very trickyand require almost continual maintenance (as others have pointed out).

As SQ progressed into the Windows versions which they call (GUI Versions 6.0 and up) ISBT issues are still lacking. Conversely, when MICRO went GUI their inital version came with the cool clicks and whistles . BB GUI 6.0 went live bare bones several years ago with the "promise" of full ISBT functionality with 6.2, no really 6.3, no realy, really 6.4. Decent system but it seems like whatever improvements you are looking forward to...just seem to be a few upgrades away....for a cost$$$.

[tbostock]

Totally agree with everything Elizabeth said about Sunquest. Their promise is always that they will fix it in the next version.

[OxyApos]

We have had Sunquest BB since 2005, shoved down our throat when Hemocare that we'd had since 1990, had to be sunset. Lab LIS is Sunquest so $$$ ruled over functionality. Sunquest is terrible and difficult to train new techs on. Many issues that they know about and refuse to fix. Each new version of software fixes one thing and breaks 2 others. QA issues addressed in previous threads are true and an issue for supervisors who have to double chk so much data the next day. We have a Blood Banker as our systems analyst so some of our set up was unique and worked around. IF you get this POS email me and I'll help you.