Building a New Transfusion Service

6Citations
Citations of this article
35Readers
Mendeley users who have this article in their library.

This article is free to access.

Abstract

Objectives For over 60 years, Harborview Medical Center (HMC) in Seattle has received its blood components and pretransfusion testing from a centralized transfusion service operated by the regional blood supplier. In 2011, a hospital-based transfusion service (HBTS) was activated. Methods After 5 years of operation, we evaluated the effects of the HBTS by reviewing records of hospital blood use, quality system events, blood product delivery times, and costs. Furthermore, the effects of in-house expertise on laboratory medicine resident and medical laboratory scientist student training, as well as regulatory and accrediting agency concerns, were reviewed. Results Blood use records from 2003 to 2015 demonstrated large reductions in blood component procurement, allocation, transfusion, and wastage with decreases in costs temporally related to the change in service. The turnaround time for thawed plasma for trauma patients decreased from 90 to 3 minutes. Transfusion medicine education metrics for residents and laboratory technology students improved significantly. HMC researchers brought in $2 million in transfusion research funding. Conclusions HMC successfully transitioned to an HBTS, providing world-class primary transfusion support to a level 1 trauma center. Near-term benefits in patient care, education, and research resulted. Blood support became faster, safer, and cheaper.

Cite

CITATION STYLE

APA

Hess, J. R., Hayden, B. K., Cruz-Cody, V. G., Louzon, M. J., Tuott, E. E., Sen, N. E., … Pagano, M. B. (2017). Building a New Transfusion Service. In American Journal of Clinical Pathology (Vol. 148, pp. 173–178). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcp/aqx057

Register to see more suggestions

Mendeley helps you to discover research relevant for your work.

Already have an account?

Save time finding and organizing research with Mendeley

Sign up for free