Hgb level

[shock-me-sane]

So at what number does your hospital hang blood? I am doing an internship this summer and was initally shocked at the patients labs. They will write orders once the low 7's show up.

Maybe it is because it is the ICU? I now find it strange seeing anyone with a 10+. What is your hospital/unit policy?

[Elvish, BSN, DNP, RN, NP]

We look at h/h, is the pt symptomatic, and we do orthostatics (this is a postpartum floor so our pts can move pretty well). Also it depends on the pts baseline h/h. If someone dropped from 13/35 to 7.5/23 and gets dizzy/SOB then yeah, they've probaby won a ticket to a unit or two. But if she came in at 9/28 or something & drops to 7.5/23 (say she's got sickle cell trait) she will probably not get anything if she's not symptomatic. Glad there's no set rule, as things can vary so much between patients.

[EmmaG, RN]

We look at h/h, is the pt symptomatic, and we do orthostatics (this is a postpartum floor so our pts can move pretty well). Also it depends on the pts baseline h/h. If someone dropped from 13/35 to 7.5/23 and gets dizzy/SOB then yeah, they've probaby won a ticket to a unit or two. But if she came in at 9/28 or something & drops to 7.5/23 (say she's got sickle cell trait) she will probably not get anything if she's not symptomatic. Glad there's no set rule, as things can vary so much between patients.

That's what aggravated me so much about my daughter; her hgb had dropped pretty dramatically after the delivery, and she passed out that night after being admitted to PP. She was 6.8 or 9, and sent home that way... like I said, I didn't find this out until a week later. When I expressed shock at her level then, the doc said "well it's better than when we sent her home!" I was :angryfire

[traumaRUs, MSN, APRN]

I work with renal patients and if my patients are a 10.0 - they are in good shape -lol!

Seriously, you treat the patient, not the number. For some of my patients, I would not transfuse until they had a 2gm hgb drop. I will usually look to transfuse at around 7.0hgb because at that point they are usually getting symptomatic.