Yes, another question related to past and upcoming surgeries.
I had to get my blood typed and matched right before my surgery. The pre-visit nurse tried to make me come in to the hospital the day before to get that done. Yeah… no. Not gonna take 2 and a half hours out of an insanely busy work week, when I knew full well they could do it right there. She backed down. She did say they couldn’t have done it when I had my regular pre-op blood work (CBC etc.) a week earlier at LabCorp - why is that?
And if I had needed blood: Do they typically have a pint or two right there, thawed out and ready to use? Or do they basically stick a finger in the dike and shout out that they need x pints of A-positive (or whatever) stat? And if it’s frozen, how do they thaw it for rapid use? (I once read that microwaving it is a huge no-no).
Seems like if they had it handy, that’d be safer - but then they’d be wasting blood if I didn’t need it.
I imagine the answer is different if it’s a surgery where significant blood loss is likelier to happen. Mine, being a robot-assisted hysterectomy with no special complications anticipated, was not one where blood loss was all that likely.
TV medical shows are annoyingly mum on this topic, beyond “I need 6 units of O-Neg STAT!” at dramatic moments.
Hi. I’m the person they call when hospitals need blood. I’m a medical courier working as a subcontractor for the Red Cross.
What happens on my end is that I get a call from Dispatch telling me which hospital needs the delivery. I have 30 minutes to make it to the RC for pickup and then I have to get the blood to the hospital as fast as legally possible. (Some hospitals can be up to 8 hours away. Those places usually know ahead of time what they’ll need.) Closer hospitals can get their delivery as fast as an hour from phone call to drop off. I’ve even taken boxes to two different Life Flight facilities. Those are fun because I get to drive out to the air control tower.
Whole blood and platelets are kept at room temp. It’s plasma that is shipped in dry ice. There’s a big room full of machines that gently agitate the blood bags to keep it from settling or clotting.
This article should answer most of the OP’s questions.
It sounds like for your surgery the hospital would do a type and screen rather than a crossmatch with RBC units reserved. Typing shows ABO and Rh status, screening is for detection of other antibodies that might cause transfusion reactions. Complex antibody workups can take more than a day so it’s inadvisable to do the screen shortly before surgery. Hospital policy might rule out screening a week before surgery in case an antibody develops in the interim - unlikely if there’s no history of recent pregnancy or transfusion.
I’m not sure how it works everywhere. Here in Pennsylvania blood is collected at blood drives all over the state but it’s sent here to Johnstown for processing. Even though there are Red Cross centers all over the place, ours is the one that does the lab work. We distribute to 62 of PA’s 67 counties as well as locations in NY, NJ, WV, MD, VA, OH, NC, SC, and KY. I, personally, have a rotating schedule of 54 hospitals that I deliver to regularly.
If you know anyone who has the time, we are in dire need of volunteer drivers (you get to use the Red Cross vehicles) and paid drivers (in your own car.)
Yeah, I just had a type and screen before my hysterectomy. They did do it twice - just checked MyChart.
I don’t meet any of the criteria in the article for needing a sample 3 days beforehand (no transfusions, no pregnancy, no unknown history). And of course in my case they didn’t expect to need a transfusion. “patients with a >5% probability of transfusion based on procedure type are considered of sufficient risk to prepare for a possible transfusion”.
But suppose I had needed one? Surprises happen. Would they have had to do the finger in the dike while doing a hasty crossmatch? while calling the blood bank to send down a pint or two of their best O+?
I am glad they backed down on making me come to the hospital to do the lab work. That would have been nearly 3 hours out of my day, plus that hospital is one where they make you wear the bracelet from then on. Which is bullshit (I mean, I sort of understand the argument but they threaten you with cancelling the surgery… a little packing tape would have solved that IMHO).
It’s a chain of custody thing. The process to verify that you are the person that the bracelet identifies is a verification step. It is sealed on on purpose. Taking it off violates the “chain of custody”, i.e. that the person with the bracelet is the correct person.
A little packing tape won’t solve the problem. The problem is that the proof has been broken.
Is it very unlikely that a person will remove their bracelet and somehow get it swapped with another person’s bracelet? Yes. But systems function best by “error-proofing”. Don’t rely on “unlikely” when you can rely on “impossible”.
maybe, but a friend who had a procedure there had to go to work for several days before, wearing the hospital bracelet. I’ve had other surgeries elsewhere and never had such a requirement.