Does anyone have departmentalized blood bank for all three shifts? If so how many do you staff, how do you cover call offs, vacations, etc.? My current staffing is 2 techs on dayshift, 2 techs on afternoon shift, and 1 tech on midnight shift.

 

We have one tech scheduled for blood blank weekdays (me), one for evenings weekdays and only one tech for the whole lab graveyard shift.  On weekends one tech usually does Chemistry and blood bank on days and evenings.  It usually works out okay, but obviously some days are quite hectic.

In my previous position it was two techs and a supervisor (blood bank only) on days, two techs on evenings, and one at night. We were lucky enough to have dedicated weekend staff (at least, when we had a full crew), so we had one on days, one on nights and a part-time tech for an overlap from 10a-10p or so.

Where I am currently there are five of us on days! Evenings and nights are covered by generalists, but we are very surgery-heavy so it works for us.

Staffing for BB here is 2.5 M-F days, 1 on second shift and 1 on weekend days, and 0.5 nights.  But the only dedicated BB associate is our coordinator who usually works days M-F.  All associates who cover BB are generalists.  

We are a level 2 trauma center with about 270 beds.  Without generalists, we would have real trouble with staffing, as we need the flexibility.

 

Scott

On 11/11/2016 at 1:40 PM, beverleyj said:

Does anyone have departmentalized blood bank for all three shifts? If so how many do you staff, how do you cover call offs, vacations, etc.? My current staffing is 2 techs on dayshift, 2 techs on afternoon shift, and 1 tech on midnight shift.

 

How large is your facility, how busy is your blood bank?  My last blood bank was in a 350 bed level II trauma center with a 35 bed NICU and a very active heart group.  We had 2 techs day shift (I was back up if needed), 1 tech evenings and 1 tech dedicated to blood bank on nights.  Weekends was 1,1, and 1.