Unit tags with Cerner LIS

[silverblood]

Our hospital is soon converting to Cerner LIS from MediTech. With the Meditech system we were able to print transfusion forms that had sticky labels printed with the forms which we would affix to the unit of blood or blood product. These labels would be printed with all of the specifics about the unit: patient name, donor unit #, blood bank I.D., medical record number of patient etc. With the Cerner system we will no longer be using these transfusion forms-apparently the only thing that will print with each unit is a paper that will have all of the unit and patient information on it-there will be no label to affix to the unit itself. I'm told that this 'paper' will somehow be attached to the unit to be sent to the floor for transfusion. This does not seem at all feasible or safe to me. Wondering how other facilities that have the Cerner LIS handle this situation. I shudder to think that units of blood may be going to nursing units with only a piece of paper attached to them as the only identifying item................

[Sandy L]

_{We have Cerner Millennium Blood Bank and have a custom “Unit Tag”.  With Cerner Classic we printed a Transfusion Record (8.5 X 11 inch) that had a peel-off label that went on the unit and also all of the patient and product compatibility info printed on the Transfusion Record as well.  The down side of the old system is that it had to be printed on a dot matrix printer that had frequent jamming issues.  When we moved to Cerner Millennium in 2011 we decided that we could achieve the same thing by printing (Zebra style laser label printer) onto a label.  The label prints multiple copies so that one copy affixes to the transfusion label and one copy affixes to the unit.  The standard label stock we use is not an “FDA-approved” label adhesive, so it goes onto a tie tag that is affixed to the unit with plastic cable tie fasteners.  Cerner has a “standard” compatibility tag that is not very desirable.  Most Cerner users go the custom route.  We had our custom “tag” (label) designed for us by Cerner.}

[bduff]

When we had Cerner millenium we had a label print from the micro part of the system. We would go in and order the test BB label and print it like it was a media... I guess it was called a media label. We got rid of cerner about 3 years ago so I don't remember much more than that. Good luck!

[Richard Kriozere]

_{I found this subject most interesting/enlightening and would love to here about how other healthcare facilities and LIS compnies handle this at client hospitals.  It sounds as if there is little standardization and a place for improved solutions to transfusion compatibility identification from patient to blood bank and back to bed side.}

 

_Richard

[Dansket]

Using Meditech C/S ver 5.64, we print our "crossmatch tag" on 8.5" x 11" pre-printed laser label stock stored in Tray 3 of our HP LaserJet 4250 printer.There are die-cuts near the top of the form that create "labels" that are removed and affixed to the blood component container (provides permanent link to patient) and to the Request to Release Blood Component form at the time of blood issue.

[Maureen]

I can agree "_{Cerner has a “standard” compatibility tag that is not very desirable", the font is too small.}

 

_{Our customization request has been on the short IT todo list for quite awhile now, but doesn't make it to the top, despite multiple issues.}

 

We print on 3 hole paper and attach the standard laser printed report with a plastic tie tag (Avery item 18800) with no issues.

[Winter]

I know this is a Cerner thread, but is anyone willing to share their settings for Meditech unit tags? We currently have v5.67.

[ElinF]

We have Cerner Millennium and are all of our computer systems come to us via our reference lab.   We use a printed piece of paper that has a sticker on the bottom.  The Top part we keep and scan into medical records and  has all the info regarding unit and where the nurse/tech signs and the bottom has a sticker that has all pertinent info we place on the unit.  The reference lab uses the same so we just did what they did...

 

It was a little challenging to get all that info on a small sticker- I don't think the IT dept was very happy with me!  haha

 

Elin