Development of permanent national register of blood component use utilizing electronic hospital information systems.
OBJECTIVE
We wanted to establish a permanent national database system, which can be utilized to study transfusion recipients and blood use in Finland.


METHODS
A regularly updated register for permanent use was developed. To study the usability of the database, years 2002 and 2003 were further analysed. Database included all transfused patients in major blood-transfusing hospitals from four university and five central hospital districts managing altogether 63% of Finnish inpatient hospital episodes.


RESULTS
Audit of gathered data reveal 96.8% match in adult blood components with Finnish Red Cross, Blood Service sales figures. Model data set includes 59,535 transfused patients (44.3% men and 55.7% women) having received 529,104 blood components. Half of all blood units were transfused in connection with surgical operations. Most of the blood recipients were elderly (51.6% are over 64 years of age). Blood-component use and transfusion-related costs varied widely between hospitals.


CONCLUSIONS
Hospital data managing systems can be useful for creating a population-based database system to monitor and compare transfusion practices. This record provides information about transfusion epidemiology for transfusion professionals, hospital management, and hospital administration.
Palo
R
R
Finnish Red Cross Blood Service, Helsinki, Finland. riikka.palo@hus.fi
Ali-Melkkilä
T
T
Hanhela
R
R
Jäntti
V
V
Krusius
T
T
Leppänen
E
E
Mahlamäki
E K
EK
Perhoniemi
V
V
Rajamäki
A
A
Rautonen
J
J
Salmenperä
M
M
Salo
H
H
Salonen
I
I
Savolainen
E-R
ER
Sjövall
S
S
Suistomaa
M
M
Syrjälä
M
M
Tienhaara
A
A
Vähämurto
M
M
Mäki
T
T
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016913:Blood Component Transfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005240:Feasibility Studies; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland; D040362:Geographic Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006751:Hospital Information Systems / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D012042:Registries / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012189:Retrospective Studies