FOR INPATIENT UNITS AND CLINICS:

• Blood orders should always be ordered using order sets because it contains all the order groups that may be needed (e.g. Type and Screen and Blood Products).
• When entering the Blood Product Order, it is important to pay attention to any Best Practice Alert and/or the Last Resulted LabTest Results because it will alert you to whether there is a current resulted type and screen. If the result is pending, you will need to go the pending order screen to see if the type and screen has been drawn but awaiting the final results (or "resulted"). If the type and screen happens to be current and another type and screen is not necessary, then the check mark before the order group can be removed.
• Red Blood Cells and Granulocytes cannot be released until the type and screen is completed or "resulted" as final, except in emergencies.
• If blood is released either by accident, without a resulted type and screen, or subsequently needs to be returned to the Blood Bank (e.g. patient had to go to a test or the IV access became unavailable)- then when the nurse is ready to administer the blood product, a paper A-1a blood order requisition needs to be filled out as before when ordering blood (e.g. including the number of products and product type(s)). Place a patient bar code label in the upper right hand corner of the requisition. Write the RN name, contact number, and that the blood could not be released in EPIC on the requisition. [This is a temporary measure until a reprint function is available.

Refer to the Example of Order Set: Blood Product and Transfusion image.

INTRA-OPERATIVE:
Blood Product Orders will remain on paper A-1a requisitions. Follow the pre-Epic process that is in place.

Please contact Judy Levitt, DeGowin Blood Center Manager at 356-1835 or the Blood Bank at 356-2561.