SAN DIEGO – A process intended to optimize blood management led to a 30% reduction in blood use and a savings of $2 million, results from a single-center study showed.
“Blood is a limited resource and we have a responsibility as a health care provider to optimize the use of a resource that is difficult to get and only available through altruistic donations,” lead study author Barbara J. Martin, RN, said in a press release. The study was presented in a poster session at the American College of Surgeons/National Surgical Quality Improvement Program National Conference.
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In an effort to evaluate how they could implement evidence-based guidelines around restrictive transfusion, Ms. Martin and her colleagues at Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, Tenn., first changed provider orders to support a single unit order and then follow-up order for more blood if necessary. The previous process was to order two units of blood, which was at times more blood than was needed. “The data on restrictive transfusion has been out for years documenting that patients have better outcomes with a more restrictive transfusion strategy,” Ms. Martin, of the Vanderbilt Center for Clinical Improvement, said in the press release. “We were looking at whether we could guide providers to treat symptomatic anemia with a single unit of blood rather than the usual two units.”
The researchers enhanced the Computerized Provider Order Entry (CPOE) system to allow blood ordering practices to be based on a specific assessment of each case rather than on a standard order of two units. As a result, red blood cell transfusions at Vanderbilt declined from 675 units per 1,000 discharges in 2011 to 432 units per 1,000 discharges in 2015, a decrease of more than 30%.
In an effort to reduce inefficiencies in the way blood is ordered, transported, and stored, Ms. Martin and her multidisciplinary team developed the following guidelines for perioperative handling:
• When more than one unit of blood is ordered, it is sent in a cooler rather than the pneumatic tube.
• Coolers are reconfigured to optimize temperature management.
• A specific staff member is tasked with “ownership” of the blood products, including returning unused product to the blood bank.
• Individual unit wastage is reported to clinical leaders for review; aggregate data are reported monthly.
After implementation of these practices, fewer than 80 units of blood were wasted at Vanderbilt in 2015, a drop from 300 in 2011. Collectively, the blood management strategies resulted in a savings of $2 million. Ms. Martin said that such guidelines can be implemented at other medical centers, but “you have to prioritize what your initiatives are. At Vanderbilt we had a lot of opportunities with blood transfusion and blood wastage and we made huge gains. Any incremental improvement would take additional resources.”
The researchers reported having no relevant disclosures.