I need a new blood bank scale for therapeutic phlebotomy. What would anyone recommmend? OHAUS seems to be a good brand, I don't know which model would be best for a small hospital (22 beds) and we do about 4-6 therapeutic phlebotomies a month.

Thanks for your input! Babs

We collect autologous donor units here at our hospital (usually only 5-10 units per month.) We have had a GENESIS Blood Collection Mixer, Model CM-735, by NHS (National Hospital Specialties, 65 Commerce Way, Hackensack, NJ 07601) for several years.

It rocks the unit as it is being collected, it has a scale and LED display that shows you the amount collected throughout the process, it has a timer, and it sounds an alarm if the flowrate in inadequate, etc. We really like it.

I use a Fenwal trip balance . . . units are always within 10g of each other. Remember, you need to be able to qc your balance. I use a postal scale (~$35) to do that - weigh the 1st unit collected each day.

In regard to QC'ing the scale, I did something even cheaper. For our "known weight", I discovered that an old metal stapler weighed exactly 512 grams, so we simply weigh that stapler on our rocker/mixer before collecting the first unit of the day. We decided that 510-514 grams would be our acceptable range (and it's always within this range.)

Thank you so much for your answers! Babs