Reminder: AABB Accepting Feedback on Proposed 1st Edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Administration Transfusion Services

The proposed first edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Administration Transfusion Services is now available for public comment. The comment period begins today and concludes July 30.

The proposed first edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Administration Transfusion Services incorporates new prehospital concepts while updating standards that previously appeared in the first edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital Transfusion Administration Services, released by AABB in 2018.

A summary memo that accompanies the proposed first edition provides a comprehensive description of the additions and edits in the draft. Some of the significant changes include:

• Chapter 5, Process Control, has been split into two sections: one for out-of-hospital activities and one for prehospital activities. All standards in Chapters 1-4, 6-10 and the early sections of Chapter 5 apply to both disciplines.
• New Standard 5.4.4 ensures that out-of-hospital programs have two determinations of the recipient’s ABO group.
• New Standard 5.8.2.1 requires that programs performing out-of-hospital activities ensure that patients maintain their patient identification attached through the transfusion.
• New Section 5.12 focuses on the inspection of blood immediately before transfusion of blood in the prehospital space.
• New Section 5.13 focuses on the administration of blood in the prehospital setting.
• New Section 5.14 focuses on requirements for the use of uncrossmatched blood in the prehospital setting.
• Each chapter now concludes with the record retention table for those standards. Users should note that a comprehensive record retention table still exists in Chapter 6.

In addition, the proposed first edition of Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Administration Transfusion Services Standards incorporate the updated quality systems essentials that form the basis for all sets of AABB standards. The updated quality systems essentials provide a one-page piece of guidance before the beginning of each of the 10 chapters. This guidance includes:

• A description of the chapter and what the standards therein cover.
• A list of key terms that mirror the content of the chapter and that should be kept in mind when reviewing the standards.
• A list of key objectives that an assessor could look for during an onsite assessment, however, this list is not comprehensive.

Users should note that these are not requirements that members will be held against. Rather, they are tools to assist users in their understanding of the content of the chapter.

The Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Standards Committee encourages all interested individuals to submit comments in the next 60 days. The standards in the first edition are in the proposed phase and will be finalized after the comment period has concluded. The committee will review all comments submitted and provide a summary document that describes the committee’s rationale for its final decisions.

Finally, AABB reminds users that the first edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital Transfusion Administration Services will remain in effect until the first edition of Standards for Out-of-Hospital and Prehospital Transfusion Administration Services becomes effective, tentatively scheduled for April 1, 2025.