I have a question from a colleague:

According to CSTM standards: The neonate's plasma or serum shall be tested by antiglobulin test for the presence of passively acquired maternal anti-A or anti-B if the neonate is to receive non-group O red cells. If anti-A or anti-B is detected, red cells selected for transfusion shall lack the corresponding antigen.

Do any of the other regions have a Meditech solution to making sure we meet this standard? We currently have a policy to just give O blood to babies but there is no rule in Meditech to stop the issue of group A, B, or AB. I also can't find an easy way to add an IDAT test to A and B cells on a baby's crossmatch.

What are other people doing?

If I was better at rules I could probably help you.

You should be able to write an Assignment rule that includes an error message based on the patients age.

'if patient age less than 4 months and unit ABO blood type not group O then give a message'. If tech overrides message, send it to override warning report. Then attach this assignment rule to your RBCs.

Some Meditech guru could probably figure it out...

Linda Frederick

rrcc1974-

I'm not great with rules and I'm very new to Meditech, so I'm just learning. You might be able to go through some of your lab's rules and copy/edit something to get what you need. I would check out the other areas of your lab that might have an age rule you could copy and play around with. I couldn't find one in my hospitals system.

You could possibly use a "Marker", but you would still have to create a rule. There might be a marker and associated rule you could play around with in your system to suit your needs. I've found one that might work for you. We use a marker called "BBORBC". Basically, if the patient has the BBORBC marker, and the unit is not group O, the error message "Patient Requires Group O Blood!" is given and the unit may not be assigned.

I'm trying to decifer the rule language and test it out. It's in a giant rule with a about 7 other markers. I'd like to whittle it down to just what you would need. I'll post it when/if I get it.

Hoped this helped a little ...