Blood Bank bands on patients drawn while in Surgery

[Mabel Adams]

There are several extensive threads on here about BB bands being cut off in Surgery.  How are you dealing with patients that have their BB specimens drawn after they are in Surgery with their arms (and legs) under the drapes so they really can't apply the BB band to them at the time of specimen collection?  Do they put it on after the surgery or what?

[adiescast]

They apply it before leaving the surgery room. Our reasoning is that as long as there is only one patient in the room and neither the patient nor the bracelet leaves the room until they are connected that the possibilities for error are small.

[AMcCord]

They apply it before leaving the surgery room. Our reasoning is that as long as there is only one patient in the room and neither the patient nor the bracelet leaves the room until they are connected that the possibilities for error are small.

That's pretty much what we do. If the patient makes it to the recovery room without a band we start over and an incident report is filled out for Quality/Risk Management. We rarely have to take that step.

[macarton]

Our surgery mostly CV surgery  has a wider band that they stick the one cut off back on the patient before they leave surgery. 

 

If they arrive back to the floor, we start all over as well.

Mary