Infrastructure for monitoring blood transfusion practice in New South Wales hospitals.
OBJECTIVE
To determine the existing infrastructure for monitoring blood transfusion practices in New South Wales hospitals.


METHODS
A questionnaire survey conducted in August 1998.


METHODS
All healthcare facilities known to have used blood products from the Australian Red Cross Blood Service--New South Wales in the 12 months before the survey.


METHODS
Existence of a transfusion committee and policies and procedures to ensure appropriate use and issue of blood products; monitoring expiry rates of red blood cells, platelets and fresh frozen plasma; using a maximum blood ordering schedule (MBOS); and measuring the crossmatch to transfusion ratio (CT ratio).


RESULTS
224 hospitals were surveyed and 144 responses were received (64%). Twenty-five hospitals (17%) had a transfusion committee; 60 (42%) monitored expiry rates of red cells, and 39 (27%) and 42 (29%), respectively, monitored these rates for platelets and fresh frozen plasma. Thirty-three hospitals (23%) used an MBOS and 43 (30%) measured the CT ratio. However, over 70% of the larger hospitals (> 200 beds) had all these aspects of transfusion infrastructure in place, and 35% had transfusion committees.


CONCLUSIONS
Our survey showed that, overall, there was a lack of transfusion infrastructure in NSW hospitals. However, most of the hospitals with more than 200 beds had infrastructure in place to monitor transfusion practices, but only a minority had established transfusion committees.
Dean
M G
MG
Australian Red Cross Blood Service-NSW, Sydney. mdean@arcbs.redcross.org.au
Vincent
N C
NC
D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000592:standards*; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D003625:Data Collection; D006801:Humans; D009517:New South Wales; D016134:Organizational Policy; D011367:Professional Staff Committees; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care