Blood tracking simplified

In 2005, the EU introduced The Blood Safety and Quality Regulations 2005, which stated all hospitals must have in place a blood recording mechanism. The supplier says that, to date, it believes very few hospitals have implemented a technology-based recording system, leaving room for human error.

The company adds: “Thousands of blood samples are taken annually and some rejected due to human error. Rejected samples are typically labelled incorrectly, and such inaccuracies can lead to patients receiving the wrong blood type.”

Tervia allocates each patient an individual barcode, printed onto their admission wristband. This code can then be scanned using a Tervia Pathfinder hand-held terminal each time blood is taken or received, after which the terminal prints a label containing the patient’s details, which can then be positioned on the blood sample. Once blood is “allocated” to the patient, tracking the blood unit and matching it to the right patient at any stage of the transfusion process becomes simple.