EDibble

It must be nice to know that this student appreciated your hard work in instructing him.

What does the package insert say? I do not use these myself, but if they are that difficult to read, that would be a mark against them. I assume you are happy with Temp Check?

That was my first thought. Beth

We have a scale from My Weigh (honestly). We have used it for years and it has stayed calibrated very well. We borrow a set of calibrated weights from pharmacy and check it twice a year.

Happy Fourth of July for all of us here in the USA. Sorry Malcolm. By the way, I signed out a unit earlier containing this sequence of numbers: 1776. Beth

We have an older model and like it. It is easy to use and validate.

I LOVE this idea!

We just switched to American Proficiency Institute. Apparently they are much cheaper than CAP. We have an Echo, and they had samples to run on the instrument. We scored 100% on our first survey.

I live in New Hampshire, born in Mass. You would be amazed at how many folks think that all New Englanders have the same accent.

Wow, you still have mercury thermometers?

Control Company has all sorts of choices. Check them out. You can look at their catalog online.

We recently had a patient who was in the process of making an anti Kell (at least that is what it appeared to be). We happened to have a KK cell on the panel when we first tested the patient, and the reaction was 3+ with that cell, and + with all the other K positive cells (hetero of course). Several weeks later, the patient returned and now all reactions were the same strength. This is the only time we have ever seen this here. Stuff happens! As a previous BB director here used to say, "There are no guarentees in Blood Banking"

Do you use saline replacement to help clarify the situation?

I am also an A2 with no anti A1. It is so much fun to be able to do complete antigen workups on yourself when in school.

Malcolm to the rescue once again.!

At our facility, we report all antibodies, current and any historical ones. We have a realatively small supply of blood on hand, so it helps to explain why it may take much longer than usual to prepare compatible units for transfusion, especially if we have to obtain specially screened units from ARC, our supplier.

To answer David's last question, in my experience, solid phase on the ECHO is more sensitive then PEG (which happens to be our backup method.) We have had ?? reactions on an antibody screening that were stronger on a capture panel, and ended up being a real, significant antibody. No matter what method you use, there will always be those patients whose specimens give a false positive. We just have to use our brains like we were taught oh so long ago. Beth

I totally agree with cswickard

Unfortunately, our LIS does not have the ability for the nurses to see when the blood is ready. We have a documentation list, and record day, time, who we spoke to, etc. Granted, we are a relatively small hospital, so only have to make 6-10 calls per day.

Isn't there always the option to select "other" and fill in the answer, or choose that you would send it out for further testing? Different labs have different resources.

I don't know. If Malcolm says that naturally occurring anti-K is very rare, I would go with his opinion.

Agreeing with the others. We love our Helmer.

As have I David. I believe they are doing it at Brigham and Woman's in Boston.

I cannot imagine getting terminated because I put off getting my flu shot. As we say at my house, "Do it when it shows up, not when it blows up."