Hi there,

Are any donor centers monitoring either donor 'double stick' (donor receives two needle sticks because the first is unsuccessful) and/or hematoma rates as quality indicators?

We've been collecting data as a percentage of donors per month who experience each of these (so separate numbers for double sticks and hematomas). We're attempting to set a benchmark for the data, and we're wondering if the numbers we're seeing are inline, above, or below any industry experience.

Thanks!

Lorna

Here at the Indiana Blood Center we don't track double sticks or hematomas as quality indicators. We see this as more of a cutomer service issue and have minimum phlebotomy standards in place. We require anyone not meeting the minimum phlebotomy standards to be retrained in phlebotomy.

We monitor double venipuncture rates monthly and use a threshold of of 5% which we rarely exceed. We collect both autos and allos and combine both for our QA. We do identify phlebotomist rates as well and will do retraining if necessary. We include hematomas in with our adverse reactions and do not break them out separately.