title: Blood transfusion options: improving outcomes and reducing costs.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To identify means of improving provision of transfusion services to patients while reducing hospital costs, focusing on the practice of transfusion medicine and laboratory operations in a hospital.
  
  
  METHODS
  English language literature, 1990 to present.
  
  
  METHODS
  Case reports, controlled trials, and reviews.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Owing to fixed reimbursements, hospitals are seeking ways to reduce operational costs while maintaining patient care standards. In transfusion medicine, this can be accomplished through recognition of direct and indirect costs of transfusion, careful examination of transfusion criteria, and selection of laboratory procedures that truly add to patient safety.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756, USA.
authors.forename: J P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: AuBuchon
mesh_terms: D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D017848:Blood-Borne Pathogens; D003363:Cost Control / Q000379:methods; D003695:Delivery of Health Care / Q000592:standards; D006801:Humans; D016896:Treatment Outcome