We are in the process of tagging our lab tests with LOINC codes. My cohort at our affiliate and I found most of the appropriate blood bank codes but struck out finding codes for:

Crossmatch (!)

Antibody Titer

Pathologist Interpretation of Transfusion Reaction.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks - Phil

titer: 15343-7

major xm: 1250-0

Thanks David - after seeing what they called these I don't feel as bad not being able to find them first time around. And I thought Meditech's choices for EMR test names were odd!

Phil,

Would you be willing to share what you have found thus far? Lab manager has just given us the preliminary heads up on this. Thanks for any help.

We are in the process of applying loinc codes. Our IT department is having us use the loinc.org web search. Is that how your facilities are looking up loinc codes?

Yes, we're using the website (and what a few neighboring hospitals have found). One wonders who created these codes; is there a blood banker out there who'll take credit for: "Bombay Ag [Presence] on Red Blood Cells from Blood product unit" or "A2 Ab [Titer] in Serum or Plasma"? Huh? The infamous Bombay antigen and anti-A2.................These really belong in the "Just for fun" thread!

You can go to LOINC.org and download a copy of the code database (which I just did). It's an Access database. If you click on LOINC:Table, right click on Class, Sort A to Z, all the BB codes are now grouped together. You can also search the database from the LOINC site. (At one point stumbling through the site I found the BB codes grouped together, but couldn't find that again so I downloaded the database.) Here's what we have so far:

ABO/Rh 882-1

Ab Screen 890-4

Ab ID 888-8

Eluate 34477-0

DAT Poly 1007-4

DAT IgG 55776-9

DAT C3 1004-1

Transfusion rxn interp 14924-5

What does LOINC stand for?

Logical Observation Identifiers Names & Codes

Given the Bombay antigen and the anti-A2, one wonders where the "logical" bit comes in!!!!!!!!!!!

Is this some new govt. mandate? I guess I've been out of the loop long enough now because I've never heard of it.

LOINC = Laughably Organized Idiotic Nomenclature Crap.

It's been around for a while, it's an effort to standardize lab results and other "observations" on a nation-wide level. Check out wikepedia. There is some impetus to standardize codes for electronic medical records, but I think the real push is that some 3rd party payers are going to reimburse on the LOINC codes rather than CPT or other codes.

Love it!