Blood Bank Software

[lmiranda 1]

We are in the process of narrowing our new Blood Bank software down to Softbank or SafeTrace Tx frm Haemonetics. Our new LIS system will be Beaker (our current EHR is Epic). We have heard pros and cons about both systems and are interested in users giving us feedback on their thoughts, especially if they have Softbank as a standalone (i.e., not part of the entire LIS system). All information is welcome.

Thanks

[tbostock 1,062]

I have Epic for our EMR and SoftBank (standalone) for our BB system.  I LOVE SoftBank.  We had both systems for 6 years.  Private message me if you have specific questions.

[Baby Banker 65]

We narrowed it down to the same two companies.  I went with SafeTrace on the advice of my Quality Officer.  It is a very 'locked down' system, and many of the staff don't like that.  Softbank is more user friendly.  If I had to choose a new system right now, I would probably go with HCLL.

[Carrie Easley ★ 81]

We also use SoftBank with Epic/Beaker....love SoftBank!

[bankergal 1]

We just went live with Beaker/Softbank. I was heavily involved in the build process for both systems - feel free to reach out to me if you have questions.

[Likewine99 ★ 130]

I have built the BB and Beaker portion for 16 sites in my organization, even though the BB system is HCLL please feel free to reach out to me if you have Beaker questions.

[Eagle Eye 202]

we went with SafeTrace because of "lock down" feature. From the QA view, I like to have one way to do things instead of multiple ways. for same reason we went with Safetrace....

[DPruden 115]

Beaker and SafeTrace Tx don't talk to each other very well.  We implemented these two last year and we have had some pretty major struggles with them.

[cmontgomery 6]

Our Blood Bank/Transfusion Service and Blood Center use Softbank/SoftDonor.  User friendly.   In my last employment, we had SafeTrace Tx.  I had help build it, it seemed to more blood bank safety built into it and would stop most generalists (not accustomed to blood bank but filling in) from making grave errors .   The downside, it was not easy use for non-blood bank minded techs.   Both systems are good.

[cthherbal 51]

Soft Bank is by far the best BB LIS I've worked with. 

[Laurie Underwood 36]

Our hospital is going live with EPIC and SafeTrace in 2018. Any suggestions or recommendations would be much appreciated.

[DPruden 115]

7 hours ago, Laurie Underwood said:

Our hospital is going live with EPIC and SafeTrace in 2018. Any suggestions or recommendations would be much appreciated.

Don't let the Beaker/Epic people tell you that only one day of training is sufficient for SafeTrace Tx.  And ask to have the Beaker training and Tx training environments interfaced because the steps are much different when the information is interfaced as opposed to being just typed into Tx.  Also, have someone verify the ADT/visit setup, when we went live, Epic would send a "discharge/transfer" notice across the interface whenever the patients were moved, to OR or radiology, for example.  then Tx would discharge the patient and inactivate the sample, not the most ideal scenario when a patient is going to OR...   We didn't see it during the validation because the test patients stayed nicely in their rooms the whole time!

[AMcCord 1,202]

12 hours ago, DPruden said:

Don't let the Beaker/Epic people tell you that only one day of training is sufficient for SafeTrace Tx.  And ask to have the Beaker training and Tx training environments interfaced because the steps are much different when the information is interfaced as opposed to being just typed into Tx.  Also, have someone verify the ADT/visit setup, when we went live, Epic would send a "discharge/transfer" notice across the interface whenever the patients were moved, to OR or radiology, for example.  then Tx would discharge the patient and inactivate the sample, not the most ideal scenario when a patient is going to OR...   We didn't see it during the validation because the test patients stayed nicely in their rooms the whole time!

Good to know! thanks.

[Laurie Underwood 36]

Thank you DPruden for the information. Nice to know ahead of time.

[Eagle Eye 202]

We went live with SafeTrace TX, Beaker and BPAM.

We are happy and totally agree with DPruden. Even your staff training if you just do it in SafeTrace Tx is not helpful and more confusing to staff.

It takes lots of time to have real patients and real orders but i made sure my staff were practicing with real workflows.

Evey one was assigned two patients and we were adding new orders and i was giving them specific excercise to do on all patients and units.

And the best part was nursing training. We had almost 600-800 received training in 2-3 weeks (two weeks before our go live). We were preparing 40 to 90 units/day. (for two sessions/day). I let my staff prepare those products including delivery, assign and issue. That was good practice for staff.

Only part i am not happy is standard reports. I do not have any coustom reports.

Is there anyone using analytics? How do you like it?

 

[halogen 0]

Blood banker/generalist currently on a travel assignment in a small LifePoint facility out west. Have used several software systems for blood bank over nearly four decades ranging from 1000 bed level 1 trauma centers to 25 bed hospitals in the sticks. Cerner classic and C. Millennium are fine. Sunquest Classic was very good and the new GUI is doable but has limitations and is somewhat primitive. Meditech was not terribly good for blood bank but was doable. Emergency release was the worst on that system.  I used HCLL at one facility and was not impressed. I've used SafeTrace most recently and only at my current assignment. I believe their version hasn't been updated in a decade or more. It is the WORST software I've ever used - of any kind  - transfusion service or not.  I certainly hope that other facilities don't have the enormous issues with their SafeTrace software that my current facility does. Also, my current facility is not set up for ISBT128. The facility at which I work is a trainwreck in many respects for lack of management and corporate neglect so it's no surprise that no one has worked out the kinks; therefore, I don't want to condemn SafeTrace entirely as a result. I've not worked with Softbank but would love to since many techs have highly recommended it.

 

[Baby Banker 65]

On 12/20/2019 at 10:43 AM, halogen said:

Blood banker/generalist currently on a travel assignment in a small LifePoint facility out west. Have used several software systems for blood bank over nearly four decades ranging from 1000 bed level 1 trauma centers to 25 bed hospitals in the sticks. Cerner classic and C. Millennium are fine. Sunquest Classic was very good and the new GUI is doable but has limitations and is somewhat primitive. Meditech was not terribly good for blood bank but was doable. Emergency release was the worst on that system.  I used HCLL at one facility and was not impressed. I've used SafeTrace most recently and only at my current assignment. I believe their version hasn't been updated in a decade or more. It is the WORST software I've ever used - of any kind  - transfusion service or not.  I certainly hope that other facilities don't have the enormous issues with their SafeTrace software that my current facility does. Also, my current facility is not set up for ISBT128. The facility at which I work is a trainwreck in many respects for lack of management and corporate neglect so it's no surprise that no one has worked out the kinks; therefore, I don't want to condemn SafeTrace entirely as a result. I've not worked with Softbank but would love to since many techs have highly recommended it.

 

We are on SafeTrace Tx version 3.13.  We upgraded last June.  Based on my experience with Haemonetics and other vendors, I don't think the FDA would allow a vendor to be ten years without an upgrade.

[halogen 0]

You're correct about the version. It was updated last year and they do have a contract. I believe it was never configured properly to the homegrown LIS  (MedHost) that is proprietary to LifePoint. Am hoping that new managment will get the programmers from both MedHost and SafeTrace together and configure the two softwares properly. Very basic and essential features are not working or are spotty at best.

[David Saikin 1,323]

when I was in the market for a BBIS I was going to purchase Soft.  I have used HCLL in the recent past and am glad that I did not decide to go w that system.

It's odd - I always felt that Hemocare was excellent.  it became half of HCLL and lost all it's good points. 

[halogen 0]

Yeah, thanks for sharing your experience. Is too bad - sometimes mergers wreck what was good about the software. Have seen it too often.