Losing Your Cell Saver Capability: A Survey…

Editor’s Note:

If you showed up at a Hospital where you were Providing Perfusion Services, and happened to be called in for an early morning add-on Cell-Saver- and suddenly discovered that there were no cell saver machines in the entire OR?

How would you react? 

The decision to remove the cell savers being made by an exiting perfusionist- sending 2 of them to Biomed to be PM’d that afternoon, NOT communicating that to anyone, and then taking the last cell saver out of the hospital, because it belonged to the exiting perfusion group?

The bottom line as a result of this- is that a late night AAA or heart would have been impacted as there would have been NO ATS available.  How would you handle that mishmash of non-information?  Patrolling the entire OR for a Cell Saver- not understanding why they aren’t there, not wanting to believe the removal was a deliberate act, and finding a solution to somehow supplying some sort of solution to provide the service  for the operation at hand?

When the perfsionist that manifested this was questioned about it- the following response speaks for itself…

I’m just curious if there is an ethical or moral breach here? 

Plz take the Survey Below

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Comments & Results

“I’m sure it was a contract that was up. Back in the Baxter days saw this happen a bunch when they pulled out of a facility. If you have done contract perfusion your whole career this wouldn’t be surprising or shocking.”

Ummm…  That wasn’t the question at hand- the point being- IMO it is ethically and morally totally IRRESPONSIBLE.  I could care less about corporate or perfusion group transitions- and if somehow you feel that bad feelings somehow support an argument that “it isn’t a big deal”- then you should rethink your your commitment to the profession.

“Call people, find out where equipment is, get security to open biomed dept. Do what it takes to get job done right”

At midnight?  What people do you call first?  Noone would be there to begin with.  Who in their right mind would think that ALL the cell savers were located in and sequestered in the Biomed dept overnight?  Not to mention the fact that at 830 pm- the night before, a conscious decision was made to take the LAST cell saver out of the hospital- knowing full well that there was no cell-saving devise left to utilize for an emergency.  Biomed would be locked up at midnight- and to follow up on it- how would this perfusionist even know that’s were they were located to begin with – with ZERO heads up or communication?  This is obviously a total dereliction of duty-

I hope I’m doing my job right- but part of that job does NOT entail identifying and sifting through subterfuge and sabotage while trying to actually conduct my job.  Having to look for equipment that was there a few hours after I left- is not my prime objective for crashing a pt on.

“Abhorrent behavior. Doesn’t matter if it was a contract change-over. Every patient is someone’s mother, father, child, etc. Individual should not be practicing, somewhere along the way their moral and professional compass has been destroyed.”

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