Patent ID: 7363167

Claim:
A method of managing and tracking blood products between a plurality of remote patient facilities and a central blood testing facility wherein a computer database is provided for storing information and wherein a blood specimen is obtained from each patient who requires a blood reserve for possible transfusion and said blood specimen is transferred to said central blood testing facility comprising the steps of: providing an inventory of blood products at said central blood testing facility; selecting one of said blood products which has an available segment at said central blood testing facility; detaching said segment from said one of said blood products at said central blood testing facility; transferring said one of said blood products from said central blood testing facility to one of said remote patient facilities at which said patient is located; assigning said detached segment to said transferred blood specimen for cross-matching at said central blood testing facility; determining the antigens and antibodies present in said one of said blood products and said transferred blood specimen; remote serological cross-matching said transferred blood specimen and said detached segment at said central blood testing facility to determine their compatibility with one another, and entering the results in said database; verifying the compatibility of said one of said blood products and said transferred blood specimen from the results entered in said database by comparing the antigens and antibodies in said detached segment and said transferred blood specimen to determine whether each is present in said detached segment and said transferred blood specimen tested, and storing compatibility results in said database thereof; managing said blood products by preparing patient identification information relating to each of said blood products, each said detached segment and each said transferred blood specimen tested, and storing said information in said database at each of said central blood testing and remote patient facilities; and tracking the location and movement of each of said blood products, detached segments and transferred patient specimens between said remote patient facilities and said central blood testing facility by displaying the information stored in said database relating to their location and movement.