Second Sample Policy Roll-out at New Hospitals
Since the Western Cape Blood Service (WCBS) first reported about the implementation of a second sample crossmatch policy at Khayelitsha Hospital in the January edition of the Life Blood Newsletter, we have expanded the programme to a total of four government hospitals and three private hospitals in the Cape Town region. WCBS is pleased to report a decrease in the number of ‘wrong blood in tube’ incidents since the start of this initiative, and thanks the participating hospitals for their support in improving patient safety.
The second sample policy involves requesting an additional crossmatch sample from patients who have never received a blood product before in the Western Cape (i.e. do not have a previous blood group record on our system), in order to ensure that their blood group is correct. The purpose of this strategy is to avoid an incompatible blood transfusion by identifying when blood samples have been taken from the wrong patient, labelled with incorrect details, or if there is a sample mix-up in the ward or Blood Bank. Second sample crossmatch policies are widely practiced in first world settings. Provided the blood groups from the second sample matches that of the first (and no antibodies are present), products can be issued without performing a physical crossmatch procedure, which saves about 30-60 minutes. This means that if the second sample reaches the hospital’s onsite Blood Bank within 45 minutes from the time of request and the blood groups correlate, the blood can be issued quicker than before as the time taken for serological crossmatching is removed.
For more information about the rationale of this policy, please contact Dr Caroline Hilton – Lead Medical Consultant (caroline@wcbs.org.za) or Ms Meridah Mwase – Head of Blood Banks (meridah.mwase@wcbs.org.za).
