Transcription

• Nick Lanyi

  A team effort to defeat harmful blood donation bills, Virginia allows a CAP-backed test result delay, and how a Florida lab responded to disaster. These stories and more coming up next. This is Path News Network Daily Edition from the College of American Pathologists. I'm Nick Lanyi. It's Tuesday, April 21st. The CAP and state pathology societies joined forces with the Association for the Advancement of Blood and Biotherapies and the blood bank community to successfully oppose several state bills that would have required hospitals and blood banks to provide directed or autologous blood donations. A directed donation is from a specific donor, such as a friend or family member. An autologous donation is provided by the patient before the operation or procedure. The CAP opposes such mandates, which could overwhelm blood centers, raise costs, jeopardize timely patient care, and undermine the U.S. community blood supply system, which is among the safest in the world. Nine states considered bills imposing a mandate, and the bill failed in eight of them. Arizona, Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Oklahoma, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah. Only Idaho enacted the legislation. The CAP will continue working with national and state partners to oppose mandated autologous and directed blood donation legislation and to safeguard safe, timely transfusion care for all patients. Virginia enacted a law permitting a brief delay for releasing sensitive test results in patients' electronic health records to allow clinicians to contact patients first. The CAP and the Virginia Society for Pathology supported the bill. which Governor Abigail Spanberger signed into law earlier this month. The law allows for a 72-hour window for releasing high-stakes test results, such as pathology and radiology reports showing a likely malignancy, into patient portals. The law preserves quick access to most results, but addresses concerns about patients seeing potential cancer or genetic findings before their doctor can explain them. Virginia is the fifth state. to adopt this approach, joining Kentucky, Texas, Tennessee, and Montana. And finally, our Lab Week series continues with a trip to HCA Florida Largo Hospital in Largo, Florida, just north of St. Petersburg, where disaster struck in September and October 2024. First, Hurricane Helene dumped so much rain on the area. that waterways were near overflowing. Then Hurricane Milton hit, bringing flash floods to the region. The facility's basement flooded, leaving its infrastructure underwater. The area's power went out. The hospital's generators failed. Total blackout. Laboratory Director Tammy Ramirez, still in her first year at the hospital, knew she had to move fast.

• Tammy Ramirez

  We have a smaller sister hospital, which is one mile. thank God, one mile up the road. And we really reacted very fast to get everyone to safety, our patients to safety, and move our lab. It was a big act of love for our whole community to get all of this done in such a very short time.

• Nick Lanyi

  The lab had only one portable generator at the main hospital.

• Tammy Ramirez

  A hardship was a reagent. There was... We had to focus on what was the biggest cost, the biggest need to our patients, and we have transplant here. So, of course, we kept our blood bank on refrigerated so that we could keep that going. Everything else we lost. We just had to think all of us collaboratively together. What were we going to save? What were we going to, we knew we were going to lose. So blood bank was our most important. We need to save all that blood.

• Nick Lanyi

  That also meant keeping staff moving back and forth between the main hospital and the sister hospital 24-7, transporting blood as needed. And when HCA Florida opened a mobile ER in the main hospital parking lot, the lab responded again.

• Tammy Ramirez

  So that required a lot more work from A to Z because, you know, you have to validate all of these little analyzers that we had, but we did it.

• Nick Lanyi

  The main hospital wasn't ready until December. So the temporary labs operated for almost three months. Reopening brought its own challenges, including revalidating all the equipment.

• Tammy Ramirez

  You think you're never going to use it, but we did. And it was like second nature because this is what we've been trained to do all these years. It finally paid off. And, you know, somewhere along the line, somebody had that lesson as well, which is why we're doing it, which is why we did it then. So that definitely paid off. And it proved that, you know, be ready, stay ready and do your annuals, monthly, weekly, whatever you have to do, you do it. Be prepared.

• Nick Lanyi

  That's it for today. For more information on today's stories, please see the show notes. Got a story we should be covering? Write to us at stories at cap.org. We'll be back Wednesday at 5 a.m. Eastern for another episode of The Daily Edition. I'm Nick Lanyi. Have a wonderful day.