Lori,
Do you have a perfusion team or are you contracted with a perfusion group that operates you cell-salvage equipment or heart-lung machine?
If you are contracted with a group-they are certified and have a protocol with procedures supplied to the hospital (in the OR). If you run perfusion equipment in-house email me and I'll figure out the best way to send guidelines.
Jessica Varisco
jessica.varisco@christushealth.org

Lori:
We have the COBE cardiovascular machines and we have 2 machines in house in the main OR and 2 Medtronic cell salvage machines in our CVOR. The nurses in the OR run the COBE machines and are responsible for testing, etc to make sure the product is good or high hematocrit content. The guidelines came from COBE including the guidelines from the AABB on salvage. The perfusionists run the MEdtronic machine in CVOR and are responsible for the quality of product. I don't know if they are certified particularly but I will find out.
Elora Thorpe RN

__________________
Elora Thorpe RN BSN
Coordinator
Blood Conservation Program
St. Luke's Hospital of Kansas City
Kansas City, MO. 64111
816-932-6183

We brought the quality of the product to the Blood Utilization/Conservation Committee. Our cell saver technicians did a correlation analysis using the recommendations I received at a conference (Multiple modalities yield model outcomes) These were recommended as a point of specialty in Blood Conservation. The manufacturers will give you indicators like visual inspection etc. Some indicators like current rate of processing so you can determine do we have a 1.3% discard rate - put in blood bank not used. Competency was an internal assessment by our Quality Care Management dept. that I work out of and we looked at certification opportunities for our techs. There is a National Registry forming that we learned of. This process also gave us the opportunity for Performance Improvement and the ability to go to a superior machine that will give us more capabilities and a superior product while reducing cost!
As far as the quality of the red cell product - we did a correlation analysis for three months...
Procedure for Validating Crit-Line
There will be twenty samples taken from each cell saver machine and a correlation analysis will be done with the lab to validate crit-line on each machine.
Supplies Needed:
Cell Saver processing kit
Cuvette which will read your crit from the processor
3cc syringe
3ml sampling tube from the lab which contains Hemogard
Analysis chart to record data
Process:

1. Start processing a case
2. When the first bowl empties, write down what the crit reading is from the cell saver machine and take a 5cc syringe and fill up a 3ml test tube which contains hemogard with a sample to take to the lab, (the test tubes will be pre labeled with the machine number and the bowl size).
3. Take sample to the lab as soon as possible
4. A lab tech will run the sample and write down the results on the chart provided by the cell saver technicians.
5. You must take 10 samples from a 135 bowl and 10 samples from a 250 bowl.
6. After you have taken 20 samples from the cell saver machine, the crit-line is then validated unless you have failure with the crit-line and the line has to be changed out by the manufacturer.

(we did both cell cytometry and spun hct.)

Johnean Hansen

Jessica - Can you post the guidlines without stepping on your policy?

__________________
Mr. Jan B. Wade
Blood Management Consultant
Enhance Outcomes - Control Cost
For Information Call - 360 296-1807
Email

Lori,

Hi, my company, Hemo Concepts, is an Auto Transfusion Company that offers consulting for Blood Conservation. We have developed a fully accredited (by the AABB) quality system available to our client hospitals as well as a comprehensive turnkey solution for hospitals who may need assistance in championing the Bloodless Medicine and Surgery program.
I've enclosed a sell sheet that describes the document. Any questions, please give me a call at 1-888-759-3000 or you can speak to Maggie Demers, RN at the same number on Tuesday of next week.

Tony


Link added by Editor - http://www.hemoconcepts.com/

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I have just read your posting regarding the AABB guidelines and the quality of blood from the cell saver. As I am sure you know Cell Saver is the brand name for Haemonetics. Is your equipment truly Haemonetics CS? If so, I may be able to help you. What model is it? Jeannie

Jeannie,
We are interested in the information you have. Would you please contact Karen Stewart, RN at stewark@shmc.org?

Thank you,
Karen

Hi Lori,
My name is Mark Lucas, I am a Perfusionist and an independent consultant for Blood Management. Perfusionists are the most didactically and clinically trained specialists for the operation of cell salvage devices in the operating room. I set up the quality program at my institution and as a member of the Transfusion Committee, help to oversee and educate the process for all users. The American Society of Extracorporeal Technology (AmSECT - American Society of Extra-Corporeal Technology, Inc.) is offering a knowledge base and certification exam for autotransfusionists, called the PBMT, Perioperative Blood Management Technician. This is truely a certification process, soon to be recognized by the AABB. Most operators of autotransfusion devices call themselves certified if they've had a sales representative give them a four hour inservice on the operation of the device. This is not a certification and only an inservice. If you are interested, and this is not a commercial, my fee is extremely reasonable. I can get you up and running in one day with a complete package to implement a quality program for your intraoperative autotransfusion devices. I can also start your operators on the path toward clinical competency in this area, to take and pass the AmSECT PBMT exam and truely become certified autotransfusionists.
Mark Lucas, MPS, CCP
Blood Management Consultant
303-550-7885

Hey Lori,
Just realized I already replied to this thread.
Mark Lucas, MPS, CCP
Chief of Perfusion
Denver Cardiovascular Perfusionists