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We call them "Alerts" - new hemolytic antibody identified during pregnancy, pos DAT on baby, transfusion error or serious trx, no compatible units for a specific patient or delay of product. It's called and documented in the computer.

I agree with the procedures above. But these are basic urgent communications required of any clinical service, and I wouldn't characterize them as critical values, which are emergencies. Perhaps it's just semantics :).

Things I have listed in my procedure: 1. If we have discovered an antibody on a patient who is about to go to surgery, we call the nurse in charge of the patient in Surgery Holding to let the physician know blood may not be available. The doc needs to know before the patient goes under the knife. Sometimes they delay the surgery and sometimes they proceed with caution. (This issue can be avoided with a pretesting process that not all physicians use) 2. If we have a serious transfusion reaction due to ABO incompatibility, we would contact the patient physician and our pathologist immediately. 3. We can't ID the antibody and the physician has requested RBC transfusion. Depending on the condition of the patient, they may still proceed with incompatible or least incompatible blood and sign a Medical Release or will probably wait until we can ID. It is up to the physician to make the call based on the patient. 4. When we had babies, we considered a positive DAT as a critical result from the BB side and would call L/D.