We are a small facility in Indiana with a one-room lab and several tiny rooms for micro, BB, Path, etc. Since we have the room, we are considering moving the Blood Bank into the Main Lab and using the old BB room for an office. The BB would be in the corner, off the main workflow, with minimal distractions. The closer proximity to the Main Lab would help our older techs from walking so much and would definitely help the sole midnight shift tech.

Everywhere I worked or inspected has always had a separate room where blood banking is done, yet I am unable to find a requirement to do so. We obviously do minimal blood banking here. Did I miss something?

As far as AABB requirement, I have no idea. But I will tell you that I came from a lab where BB was a separate room.....down a long hall. Where I am now, BB is off to one side, but very much part of the main lab. There is no comparison! Besides making it easier for us "old shifters" ( all of a sudden, I feel like I should take a nap!), it allows the other techs from other depts to partake of difficult patients and such. I work the graveyard shift and it sure helps to be close to the other areas. Also, I can hear the delicate call of nurses who need to pick up blood. Requirements? Regulations? I leave that to you managers and directors. All I can say is that having BB be part of the lab is a win-win situation.

I think it's a good idea for smaller labs where the techs are cross trained to work in all areas. It is definitely the best option for the off shifts where staff is minimal. I know at our facility, the second blood banker often is working across the hall in another department so the tech assigned to the department spends a lot time on their own and with busy nights it isn't always optimal.

Our blood bank remodel 10 years ago put us into a separate room but the with a very wide opening to the main lab. At the time, I did not want to be out in the middle of the lab where all the chit-chat could distract me, but it is nice to be close by. If we had been put out in the main lab, I would have positioned the bench for less distraction by facing away from everyone else. Maybe some half-walls or glass walls would help. Access for blood pickup is usually an issue.

I'm not really sure where the old "blood bank must be separate" came from but it does seem to be the norm. Maybe we like the mystique of being special, I don't know.

What I do know is when we designed the lab in the new hospital (we moved in, in 2002) the Transfusion service became part of the general lab. We do have modular furniture and there is some frame work between departments but you could never call them walls. We are actually considered part of the lab and have gotten to know others in the lab much better than before. I'm all for taking down the walls. If you can't focus with a little outside distraction coming from the rest of the lab you will probably have problems focusing in a closet all by your self.

I don't think blood bank has to be separate but ours is. We did have a glass door that closed us off from the rest of the lab (with glass windows all around). We decided to take down the door since we liked it more open but occasionally wish we could close it because of noise. Some techs are bothered by the noise if working on a complex patient where they really need to concentrate and others don't seem to be bothered at all.

It is probably wise to build with your newest, least comfortable, most distractible tech in mind--whatever solutions you choose. Sometimes it is more about productivity than making a mistake, but that is probably a rare problem with today's staffing issues.

The lab I did a CAP inspection for last year had their blood bank on the second floor of the lab and right next door to the O.R. There was a window connecting the two departments and when the O.R. needed blood, they would go to the blood bank window, check it out, and take it away just like they were at the McDonald's drive thru ordering a happy meal.

I would prefer to have my blood bank in a separate room with the following:

- a window with a nice view

- a phone to connect me with the outside world

- plenty of padding to protect myself against myself when dealing with personnel and warm autoantibodies

- a valium salt lick to take the edge off

I don't think that's too much to ask, is it?:cool:

The practice of having blood bank separate from the rest of the lab may have come from the labeling requirements, which require labeling operations to be separated physically or spatially from other operations "in a manner adequate to prevent mixups." See 21 CFR 606.120(a).

Maybe some of the really old techs on this site can help with this (that's a joke- I say- that's a joke, son!).

BC

Bob, I believe that is the general reason many of the "older" blood banks were set up this way......since most of todays hospitals no longer draw donors, I believe it is "just the way it has always been"