Consultant to Other Physicians

With the faculty member, the resident is the primary contact from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. for all clinical transfusion problems and consultations. The most common calls from clinicians on a daily basis include several on the topic of requests for blood components, for assistance in managing patients refractory to transfusion and questions about management of therapeutic apheresis patients. Calls also are received several times a day from blood bank staff and usually result in the need for the resident to directly contact our clinical colleagues. The resident often interacts by phone and directly on the patient care unit with the clinicians taking care of the patient.

During the rotation, the resident correlates laboratory results with clinical findings to determine whether special components are needed, often on a daily basis. The resident will correlate patient signs and symptoms with laboratory data in evaluating transfusion reactions. In plasma exchange patients, the resident will follow the clinical status daily, correlating with laboratory tests to determine effectiveness of therapy, and decide further treatments or manage adverse reactions (e.g. hypocalcemia). The resident will correlate results from several laboratories in the care of pheresis patients (e.g. TTP patients – following hematology laboratory results (platelet count) and chemistry laboratory results (creatinine, LDH) and special hematology laboratory results (peripheral smear for schistocytes).

Residents have the responsibility, under faculty supervision, of discussing the interpretiv consultative reports on BB/TM cases with appropriate members of the clinical/surgical teams. Through their discussions with the clinical team members, the residents have the opportunity to directly impact patient care. Other departments on the WVUH campus, with ACGME approved post graduate training programs include, but are not limited to the following: Anesthesiology, Internal Medicine, Family Practice, Neurosurgery, Obstetrics & Gynecology, Ophthalmology, Otolaryngology, Orthopedic Surgery, Pediatrics, Radiology, Surgery, and Urology.