dkeyes04

Yes PAWHITTECAR, I have made a number of revisions to bring policies in line with the way things are actually done. Thanks for your comment, always nice to know I am not in this boat alone!

Hi all, I am a relatively new supervisor making my way through reviewing all SOPs. I came across one policy concerning storage of patient samples, it says, " all samples are stored at 1-6C when not in use. ....Do not use a speciment for testing that has remained at room temperature for 8 hours." I understand this in theory of extended time at room temp increases likelihood of bacterial growth if present. What I am trying to locate is a standard from either AABB or CAP that states this. Does such a standard exist or was it likely this was written based on common sense? thanks for any thoughts......debbie

gender is definately part of our trauma alert practice. However every great once in a while this info does not get passed on to bb. If this info is not passed to us, we go with the safest option O neg.

We have recently gone to stocking 6 AB liquid plasma. The only indication for use of this product is massive txn, but it buys us time in the event of a massive. Our protocol calls for a 1:1 ratio of rbcs/plasma with a platelet for each "cycle" of rbcs/plasma.

Mabel, I thought of this too. My thought was that in the event of a true mass casualty the victims would quickly be reduced to their birthday suits. Thus eliminating the guessing part of what sex is the victim. Our disaster plan does include calling blood suppliers to determine how much blood they can send at that time. I feel sure their policy will include importing units from other areas as needed. Thanks everyone for the thoughts!

We give it 24 hours of continuous monitoring prior to moving product back.

I have recently taken over as bb manager in our hospital. Yesterday I went to a meeting concerning an area wide disaster drill coming later this week. In the event of a true mass casualty should we utilize O pos prbcs or O neg prbcs for everyone. My thought was go with O pos for males and O neg for females. Someone else thought perhaps O neg for everyone. My concern with this is simple math, we don't keep enough O negs to handle a true mass casualty. So I am wondering if anyone has a bb policy for mass casualties? We have a trauma policy that states all men and women >/=55 get O pos and women of childbearing age get O neg. Thoughts???