A rational approach to crossmatching blood for elective surgery.
A group-and-screen system was introduced for selected surgical procedures to improve the cost-effectiveness of the hospital blood transfusion service. The mean crossmatch-transfusion ratio for eleven procedures was 11.1 but fell to 3.3 after the change. The overall crossmatch-transfusion ratio in the hospital improved from 2.7 to 2.2 (p less than 0.001) and blood wastage by expiry fell from 12% to 5% (p less than 0.02). The mean age of blood being transfused also improved slightly from 12.3 days to 10.4 days (p less than 0.001). No problems have arisen from the group-and-screen system to date. It has led to improvement in the efficiency and cost-effectiveness of the hospital blood bank and resulted in fresher blood being transfused.
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D001771:Blood Banks / Q000458:organization & administration; D001788:Blood Grouping and Crossmatching / Q000379:methods*; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D004469:Economics, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System; D013514:Surgical Procedures, Operative / Q000191:economics*
D000017:ABO Blood-Group System; D012204:Rh-Hr Blood-Group System