Onboarding · Part 2 of 5

Onboarding a hospital blood bank

A hospital with its own blood bank joins like any center. Here is what to set up differently: crossmatch-first issue, reservations, ward returns and transfusion reactions.

A hospital that runs its own blood bank joins VenaShield in the same way as a standalone center. It gets its own site, a site admin and its own staff. This guide covers what is the same and what a hospital should set up differently.

The same as a standalone center

Follow part 1 for:

• the site code and the site admin sign-up
• staff sign-up and approval in Staff Directory
• two-factor sign-in
• processing charges in Rate Configuration
• par levels

What's different in a hospital

Most of your issues are crossmatched for patients already in the hospital

Issue technicians work from Issue / Dispatch:

1. Search stock for the patient's blood group. A unit already reserved for that patient is offered first.
2. Record the crossmatch in Laboratory → Serology Link. VenaShield works out compatible or incompatible from the grades you enter. A patient with a known antibody needs a full antiglobulin crossmatch.
3. Issue the unit. A red-cell unit cannot be issued without a compatible crossmatch, unless a doctor records an emergency release with a written reason.

Before allocating, the issue technician sees the patient's history, including any earlier antibodies.

Reserve and return

A unit can be reserved for a patient before surgery and released back to stock if it isn't used.

Units returned from the ward must pass a cold-chain check before they go back on the shelf.

Transfusion reactions come from the wards

When a patient reacts, report it on Inventory & Issue → Transfusion Reaction against the unit number and the patient:

• VenaShield immediately holds every other unit from the same donor.
• The lab records its workup in Reaction Workup.
• A medical officer who neither reported nor worked up the case reviews it and closes it.
• Cases open longer than 24 hours move to the top of the list.

Sample reception

Samples from wards arrive at Laboratory → Serology Link. There the lab:

• accepts or rejects each tube
• gives each accepted sample a lab ID
• records the direct antiglobulin test

A rejected tube cannot be used for grouping.

Several hospitals in one group

Each hospital blood bank in a group is its own site, with its own code, staff and stock. A group quality manager can see across every site. Units move between the group's sites as loans in Exchange & Loans, so both sides have a record.

Next in the series: Supplying hospitals that don't have a blood bank