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A transfusion service has the opportunity to improve its process control if ISBT 128 is adopted. In a recent survey of hospital transfusion services, only 51% were computerized. Most transfusion service software sold in the United States today is compatible with ISBT 128. Most hospitals upgrade their laboratory computer systems to the most recent version periodically as a part of maintaining the service agreement with their software vendors. The vast majority of transfusion services have, or will soon have, software that will be compatible with ISBT 128 without incurring any additional cost for the software. If a transfusion service is not certain if its software version is ISBT 128-compatible, check the ICCBBA, Inc Web site vendor listing or contact your software vendor.
Bar code readers purchased within the last ten (10) years will auto discriminate between Code 128 and Codabar. On-demand label printers are optional and are not needed by most facilities.
Hospitals will incur validation costs that are associated with the number of blood suppliers used, the number of different components received and whether the hospital further manufactures blood components after receipt.
Non-computerized transfusion services will need to know the changes made to the label in order to make sure manual records accommodate the longer ISBT 128 numbers and that staff are trained.
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