Because children require less blood than adults, the products are often split into smaller packages for transfusion recipients who could be as young as a newborn infant. The pilot, which started on Oct. 31, 2016, ended in February. The RFID solution is known as CompoTrace and is provided by health-care technologies company Fresenius Kabi.
BloodCenter of Wisconsin — a nonprofit organization that specializes in blood services; organ, tissue and marrow donation; diagnostic testing; and medical services and research — is part of health-care organization Versiti. The blood center teamed up with Fresenius Kabi to begin piloting the passive HF RFID-based solution. The facility has been researching and testing RFID technology for more than a decade, to better manage its blood supply as the product passes from the center to hospitals for use by patients.
The latest project was designed to determine how the technology could benefit the visibility and management of blood supplies for the smallest of patients.
"Children's transfusions differ from adults' because the doses are much smaller," says Lynne Briggs, BloodCenter of Wisconsin's VP and CIO. A blood bag stores a specific dosage for adults, she explains, but an infant or small child would use only a small percentage of that dose. Rather than blood being wasted that isn't required for a young patient, the product is split into multiple pediatric doses.
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