The Transfusion Service at Community Regional Medical Center, also known as the hospital Blood Bank, has once again earned accreditation by the world's premier professional body representing blood collection facilities and hospital transfusion services – the AABB. Once called the American Association of Blood Banks, this organization’s voluntary program contributes to the quality and safety of collecting, processing, testing, distributing and administering blood. Pathologist David Slater, Community Regional laboratory medical director and Community Medical Centers’ board member said accreditation by the AABB means an organization's commitment to safe and effective transfusion medicine is at the highest standard of practice.

The AABB assesses the quality and operational systems within a facility. Accreditation means the level of technical and administrative performance meets or exceeds the standards set by AABB. It also establishes that blood banking techniques – collecting, processing, testing, distributing and administering blood products – are all done to AABB standards, the Code of Federal Regulations and other federal guidance documents.
 

Community Regional’s blood bank team gets reaccredited by the AABB.

"When AABB comes, they leave no stone unturned in the entire transfusion process,” said Dr. Slater. “Given how large and complex Community Regional is, our AABB accreditation ensures our transfusion services will continue to meet the needs of our patients and our doctors."
 
Every two years, Community Regional’s blood bank participates in an intensive on-site assessment by specially trained assessors from the AABB. The most recent was in September. Community Regional has been an AABB-accredited hospital since the early 1980s – initially as Fresno Community Hospital and then growing into today’s major tertiary medical center and teaching hospital, for which AABB accreditation is particularly important.
 
“We are proud of our accreditation and the staff and blood bank leadership who make it possible. We could not maintain our accreditation without the hard work of our multidisciplinary Transfusion Committee, our Massive Transfusion Committee, and our nursing leadership. We thank them, too,” Dr. Slater said.
 
Jennifer Avila-Allen reported this story. She can be reached at CMCnews@CommunityMedical.org