ABO compatibility verified using computer system without immediate spin or and antiglobulin crossmatching if significant alloantibodies have not been detected in the recipient sample.
Using AABB guidelines, the electronic crossmatch is possible only if the following conditions are met:
- The patient’s ABO group and Rh type has been done twice and entered in the computer (one group can consist of a record but one must be done on a current in-date specimen). * The computer must alert the technologist if there is a discrepancy between the two groups.
- The donor ABO (and Rh types, if negative) have been confirmed and entered in the computer. The donor’s unit identification number, component name, and ABO/Rh type must also be entered in the computer (manually or by scanning the bar code label on the unit).
- The computer system will alert the technologist to ABO & Rh discrepancies between information on the donor label and results of donor confirmatory testing.
- The computer system will alert the technologist to ensure correct data entry and interpretation, e.g., prevent group O test results from being misinterpreted as group A.
- The computer system will alert the technologist to ABO and Rh discrepancies patient and donor groups. The program should be programed to prevent assigning ABO incompatible blood (e.g., group A red cells to a group O recipient) and to give an alert when assigning Rh-positive red cells to Rh-negative recipients.