View source for Laboratory Informatics Buyer's Guide for Medical Diagnostics and Research/Introduction to medical diagnostics and research laboratories/Blood bank and transfusion lab

==1.4 Blood bank and transfusion lab==
[[File:Blood Research- Saving Lives (8352) (9759352093).jpg|right|350px]]Blood banking is the organized laboratory process of ensuring donated blood or blood products are safe to use for transfusion or other medical procedures.<ref name="JHMBlood">{{cite web |url=https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/treatment-tests-and-therapies/blood-banking |title=Blood Banking |work=Health Portal |publisher=Johns Hopkins Medicine |accessdate=18 November 2021}}</ref><ref name="CurlessInfection18">{{cite web |url=http://reprolineplus.org/system/files/resources/IPC_M8_BloodbanksLabs.pdf |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20200108173322/http://reprolineplus.org/system/files/resources/IPC_M8_BloodbanksLabs.pdf |format=PDF |title=Module 8. Laboratories and Blood Banks |work=Infection Prevention and Control |author=Curless, M.S.; Forrester, L.A.; Gavin, M.A. |publisher=Jhpiego Corporation |date=2018 |archivedate=08 January 2020 |accessdate=18 November 2021}}</ref> As part of this process, blood bank and transfusion labs will include procedures such as<ref name="JHMBlood" />:

* ABO group typing (the blood type)
* Rh typing (positive or negative antigen)
* problematic antibody screening and removal (e.g., removing white blood cells from leukocyte-reduced blood)
* current or past infection screening (e.g., hepatitis B and C, HIV, syphilis, West Nile)
* T-lymphocyte irradiation
* albumin, immune globulin, and clotting factor concentrate separation and processing

Additional considerations beyond the basic medical diagnostic lab are required at a blood banking lab. Like a medical diagnostic lab, blood banking personnel must use processes that protect them and others from biological infections (i.e., biosafety). Additionally, recipients of blood and blood products from the lab must also be protected, requiring extra procedures for screening, testing, documenting, and providing oversight. This includes screening against high-risk donors such as commercial sex workers and drug users, testing potential donors for infection diseases, documenting and reviewing (lookback of) donors and recipients, ensuring sufficient time is given for blood testing and cross-matching, and ensuring staff are appropriately trained concerning the risks to them and patients.<ref name="CurlessInfection18" /> Additionally, staff are required to use a "first in, first out" or FIFO approach where stored blood and components are appropriately dated, stored according to date of expiry, and removed oldest first.<ref name="BediSegreg16">{{cite journal |title=Segregation of blood inventory: A key driver for optimum blood stock management in a resource-poor setting |journal=International Journal of Applied and Basic Medical Research |author=Bedi, R.K.; Mittal, K.; Sood, T. et al. |volume=6 |issue=2 |pages=119–22 |year=2016 |doi=10.4103/2229-516X.179023 |pmid=27127742 |pmc=PMC4830151}}</ref> Blood banks have additional regulatory concerns as well, including monitoring storage temperature and expiry times for blood and blood products based on regulation. For example, in the United States, the FDA mandates—through 21 CFR 610.53—dating period limitations and temperatures.<ref name="ECFR21CFR610.53_20">{{cite web |url=https://www.ecfr.gov/current/title-21/chapter-I/subchapter-F/part-610/subpart-F/section-610.53 |title=§610.53 Dating periods for Whole Blood and blood components |work=Electronic Code of Federal Regulations |publisher=U.S. Government Publishing Office |date=16 November 2021 |accessdate=18 November 2021}}</ref>