WEEK 1

• Blood centers are located outside the hospitals and are capable of screening donors, processing blood bags, storing and issuing blood components.
• Blood component preparation happens after 6 to 8 hours of blood collection.
• Total Process Control is the evaluation of process performance, comparison of actual performance to a goal, and action taken on any significant difference.
• Hospital Blood Banks are located within hospitals and are part of the main laboratory.
• Blood Stations are facilities that store blood and process blood for crossmatching, and may initiate blood donation.
• Transfusion services are the main activity of blood banks, involving the administration of blood.
• Blood banks must provide quality to their customers in many forms including safe, satisfying donation experiences for blood donors, accurately labeled and tested blood components provided to transfusion services, timely, accurate transfusion services provided to physicians and other health-care personnel, and safe and efficacious blood transfusions to patients.
• The method for bringing this quality philosophy into all operations involves each facility developing a foundation of quality: Quality Control (QC) involves blood bank operational techniques performed in a daily basis, Quality Assurance (QA) involves the quality of product and services, and Quality Management System (QMS) must be practiced continuously.
• Blood bank compliance with federal regulations and accreditation standards is required by the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA), The Joint Commission, College of American Pathologists (CAP), and AABB (formerly known as American Association of Blood Banks).
• Compliance Program evaluates how effectively the facility meets regulatory and accreditation requirements by detecting errors, deficiencies, and deviations.
• Compliance Inspections measure the state of the facility’s program with respect to the applicable requirements and are usually conducted every 2 years.
• Agencies in the Philippines that cater to the standardization of the blood banks are Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) and Philippine Department of Criminal Justice (PDCC) – The Philippine Blood Coordinating Council.
• Blood centers and transfusion service work on behalf of patients, the real customers of these facilities are the entity or person who receives and must be satisfied with a product or service.
• Autologous donors, also known as donor patients, donate their own blood for self-use.
• Process control is a set of activities that ensures a given work process will keep operating in a state that is continuously able to meet process goals without compromising the process itself.
• Allogenic donation involves collecting whole blood and is not aware of where it goes.
• For blood centers, the customers are the donors, who want a safe and satisfying donation experience, and the transfusion services served by the blood center, that want properly tested and labeled blood components of the appropriate types on demand.
• For transfusion services, customers are the physicians, who want the blood transfusions they order to occur in a timely manner, and the nurses, who want the correctly issued blood components in a timely manner for administration to patients.
• Purchasing and inventory considerations include inventories of reagents, supplies and blood components, selecting vendors of equipment, supplies and services, and blood centers must also have processes for receipt, inspection, and testing.
• Personnel competence assessment must include direct observation of patients test performance, monitoring the recording and reporting of test results, review of test results or worksheets, QC records, proficiency testing results, and preventive maintenance records.
• Equipment qualification includes installation qualification, operational qualification, performance qualification, and schedules for calibration, preventive maintenance, RPM and timer checks, and monitoring of temperature-regulated equipment are required.
• The internal customers of a blood bank are the personnel.
• Quality management system essentials include physical facilities, hiring qualified personnel, managing materials and equipment, and documenting work performance.
• The blood bank’s link to the laboratory, the hospital, and the hospital’s quality function are crucial relationships.
• Facilities and safety considerations include temperature control, electrical safety, fire protection, emergency preparedness, chemical hygiene, and infection control.
• Quality Management System (QMS) provides a framework for applying quality principles and practices uniformly across all blood bank operations, starting with donor selection and proceeding through transfusion outcomes.
• Risk Assessment (RA) in blood banking involves specimen preparation, patient preparation, specimen collection, specimen labelling, reagent controls, laboratory equipment, and quality assurance indicators.
• Common Quality Control (QC) activities in blood banking include donor collection, apheresis, erythropheresis, plateletpheresis, and plasmapheresis.
• An Individualized Quality Control Plan (IQCP) is a laboratory’s risk assessment, pre-analytic, analytic, and post-analytic processes, and it customizes its QC program with its own version of criteria and goals.
• Reagent controls in blood banking include copper sulfate for hemoglobin determination and Reagent Red Blood Cells for reverse typing.
• Quality Control Plan (QCP) in blood banking involves the number and type of QC testing materials, the frequency of testing, and the criteria for acceptable QC results.
• Among all the blood components, platelet concentrate is the most prone for contamination due to its storage at room temperature (20 - 24°C with continuous agitation).
• Quality Assurance in blood banking involves the performance of a test method and the performance of an equipment.
• To have an IQCP, a laboratory needs a Risk Assessment (RA).
• Quality Assessment in blood banking involves proficiency testing records and QC results, turnaround time reports, personnel competency record, and corrective action reports.
• Laboratory equipment in blood banking includes thawing devices for thawing fresh frozen plasma and blood irradiators to prevent graft and post disease.
• Quality Control (QC) in blood banking involves daily testing the reactivity of blood typing reagents, inspecting anti-sera, calibrating serologic centrifuges, monitoring temperatures, and following manufacturers’ package inserts.
• NVBSP stands for National Voluntary Blood Services Program Quality Management (QM) and is actively and continuously practiced by blood bank leaders, managers, and staff throughout all blood bank operations.