Red Blood Cell Washing Schedule and Verification System

If the wrong blood bag is identified only after washing, it may already be too late to avoid unnecessary use.

The customer had encountered cases such as selecting type B blood for an order requiring type O, or taking two large bags when one large and one small bag were needed. The first fails the blood-type requirement; the second can mean processing more than necessary. Checking only that bags have been collected is not enough—the order, blood type, and actual number of units must agree.

Every job also has a delivery date. As pending work increases, staff need to check bags and remember which orders to prioritize without omissions or delays.

We developed a web-based red blood cell washing schedule and verification system for a healthcare-related organization, bringing pending work, scheduling, and barcode checks together before processing begins.

Create work items from delivery data

Users export Excel data from their existing platform and import it into the system. Pending verification tasks are created from that data, with processing scheduled according to delivery dates and established rules to support completion before delivery.

This retains the customer’s original data source while turning delivery requirements into daily tasks and schedules, rather than relying on staff to remember each order’s timing.

Browser push notifications flag overdue work and help staff notice outstanding items. Scheduling provides a working plan, while reminders highlight timing that can otherwise be overlooked during a busy day.

Scan before washing and reject bags that do not match

Barcodes on blood bags provide the information needed for verification. Staff scan them before washing, and the system checks the selected bags against the order.

If an order requires type O and a bag does not meet the requirements, it is blocked from being added to that job. This is not a warning that users can ignore and confirm; incompatible input is rejected at the verification step.

Placing the check before processing lets staff correct their selection and reduces the risk of discovering the wrong blood product only after washing.

Check total units, not just the number of bags

Under this project’s operating configuration, quantities are expressed in units (U): a small bag is 1 U and a large bag is 2 U. Two bags can therefore represent 3 U when one is large and one small, or 4 U when both are large. Bag count alone is insufficient.

The system checks the total units from the scanned bags. For an order requiring 3 U, two large bags exceed the requirement while one large bag is insufficient. Neither can be confirmed until the selection matches the order.

This reduces reliance on mental arithmetic and visual checking when combining bag sizes, helping avoid processing too much or too little.

Define where verification ends

The system covers scheduling and pre-wash verification. Once verification is complete, the job is treated as dispatched within this system, marking the end of its workflow. This status does not mean the system has confirmed physical washing or delivery completion.

That scope focuses development on the customer’s priority: converting delivery requirements into actionable work and checking the selected blood products before washing.

Make easily missed checks an explicit control point

The project turns timing, blood-type, and quantity checks that are vulnerable to human oversight into specific functions within everyday work.

Schedules and overdue alerts keep pending tasks visible. Barcode verification rejects incompatible bags during selection and requires the total units to match before confirmation. Together, they reduce the risk of missed work and unnecessary blood-product use.

We started with errors the customer had actually encountered and built the rules into the workflow so checks take effect at the right time and staff have a clear basis for completing the task.