Blood product wastage reduction by utilising low-cost, low-impact multimodal physician-to-physician communication initiatives. Transfus Med 2019 Dec;29(6):389-393
Date
10/31/2019Pubmed ID
31663197DOI
10.1111/tme.12640Scopus ID
2-s2.0-85074847820 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 8 CitationsAbstract
OBJECTIVES: To assess a multimodal physician-to-physician communication initiative that is low in cost and impact to daily workflow to reduce blood product wastage.
BACKGROUND: Blood product stewardship is an important issue in all hospital systems. Previous studies have proposed low-cost interventions to reduce blood product wastage, but few have evaluated improvements in communication between the blood bank and providers. We undertook a prospective quality improvement project focusing on improving communication to reduce blood product wastage.
METHODS: We conducted a prospective quality improvement project over the first quarter of 2017, identifying patients with issued but unused blood products. Each service overseeing the care of patients identified on the unit status report was contacted through two possible methods: (i) phone or (ii) proprietary Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 compliant digital messaging application. Collected variables included reserved blood product type and participant time spent. Outcomes included the rate of blood product release and changes in wastage compared with historical data tracked by the blood bank.
RESULTS: Eight hundred and forty products were reserved during the study period, of which 436 (52%) were released. Average participant times ranged from 2 ± 1 min to 15 ± 4 min with no significant differences in time spent between participants (P = 0·194). Compared with the average product wastage 10 months prior to project initiation, there were significant reductions in the average wastage for platelets (5·3 ± 2·5 units vs 2·5 ± 1·5 units, P = 0·05), RBCs (6·1 ± 3·7 units vs 0 ± 0 units, P = 0·01) and overall wastage (58·3 ± 14·9 units vs 40 ± 15·7 units, P = 0·05).
CONCLUSION: Efforts focusing on improving provider-to-provider communication can reduce blood product wastage.
Author List
Levin JH, Collins L, Adekunle O, Jackson HT, Vaziri K, Schroeder M, Davison DAuthors
Jeremy H. Levin MD Assistant Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of WisconsinMary Elizabeth Schroeder MD Associate Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of Wisconsin
MESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
Blood BanksHospitals
Humans
Medical Waste Disposal
Physicians
Prospective Studies
Retrospective Studies
