The difficult crossmatch: a consideration of the staff and not the method

The crossmatching laboratory is regarded as a stressful work environment where many nontechnical issues may influence the interpretation of test results, particularly if the results are unclear. An attempt has been made to identify major areas of conflict and stress and to demonstrate their relationship to the quality of crossmatching. The Janis an Mann model for decision making in conflict situations is presented and related to interpretation of crossmatches.