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Electronic enhancement to decrease rejection of blood type verification specimens
V Rakesh Sethapati1, Emily Morton2, Sashika Kilambi2
1Department of Pathology, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock, Arkansas, USA.
Background:
Per the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB) Standards and best practice, patients requiring crossmatched blood transfusions must have a current type & screen (TNS) on file. The blood type must be confirmed with a second independent blood specimen, called blood type verification (BTV), which is collected following an additional patient identification process. Our policy states that the TNS and BTV samples must be drawn at different time points with reconfirmation of patient identity. BTV samples are rejected if documented as collected at the same time as the TNS. This study describes utilizing an electronic enhancement to decrease the BTV rejection rate.
Methods:
An electronic enhancement was made that disallows the printing of the BTV label until the initial TNS sample is documented as collected within the electronic health record (EHR). The BTV will only be accessible after the first sample is collected to ensure a second independent patient verification.
Results:
The overall number of rejections decreased from an average of 66 per month in the year prior to implementation to 37 per month in the year after. BTV rejections as a percentage of total specimen rejections were reduced from a monthly average of 45% to 2%.
Conclusion:
A simple yet useful electronic enhancement rendered a drastic decrease in BTV rejections. This has improved patient safety by providing crossmatched blood products in a timely manner and reducing the number of redraws.
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