David

Several years ago when we struggled with this issue, Dr. Kathleen Sazama was extremely helpful. Her credentials as a transfusion medicine MD, and JD gave her advice a lot of weight with many disciplines. If she can be reached or if she monitors this site her input would be very helpful to you.

Do you know what the FDA is recommending to use as the ABO/Rh of pooled products, i.e. cryo?

To us "mislabeled" means everything from no time of draw to misspelled names to incomplete collector information. We are long past getting WBIT's from anyone. In the past 5 years in this position I can recall that happening once (nurse draw), and we handle 70-80 specimens per day. The phlebotmist's 'error' rates are posted monthly and their supervisor handles it as part of their performance review. And, yes, we would dismiss them if they put the wrong blood in a tube.

Currently we are just tracking the errors that appear in BB. We have a fairly large number of our specimens drawn by nursing, and about half the errors are theirs. Thanks to the JCAHO emphasis on patient identification and our impending visit from them, we are getting unprecedented attention to this issue from nursing. The next step will be going to patient rooms and see what's really on the body.

I spoke with CAP a few minutes ago about this very question, among others. Their explanation is that the items in the note are not the only solutions, just some suggestions. The intent of TRM.30550 is that you have some system to ensure correct labeling, and that you monitor how well you do. We use a unique armband, similar to Typenex, and track error rates. The CAP representative said that would meet this requirement.