title: An evolution in blood management:  past, present, and future.
abstract: Blood management is a concept that adopts a principle of improving patient outcome by integrating all available techniques to ensure safety, availability, and appropriate allocation of blood products. This constitutes a model of multidisciplinary care where the changes in culture are system directed on the basis of evidence-based medicine. There are about 14% US hospitals where any kind of blood management program exists, although the idea remains the same but the programs vary in their execution, implementation, and ultimately providing the value to patients. In this article, we have described our experience of creating a patient-centric, cost-effective, evidence-based, and multipronged program creation with scalable results. The use of data, education, process improvement, engagement, and accountability of caregivers have resulted in sustained results and helped in creating a comprehensive blood management program.
authors.affiliation: Division of Hospital Medicine, Hartford Hospital, Hartford, CT 06102, USA. drajaykumar@gmail.com
authors.forename: Ajay
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kumar
authors.forename: Priscilla I
authors.initials: PI
authors.lastname: Figueroa
authors.forename: Kate L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Gowans
authors.forename: Brian M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Parker
authors.forename: Andrew W
authors.initials: AW
authors.lastname: Proctor
authors.forename: San Miguel
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Benitez-Santana
authors.forename: Colleen
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Koch
mesh_terms: D001800:Blood Specimen Collection / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D001803:Blood Transfusion; D002985:Clinical Protocols; D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006739:Hospital Administration / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D007318:Inservice Training; D018802:Patient-Centered Care / Q000458:organization & administration; D017410:Practice Guidelines as Topic; D058996:Quality Improvement / Q000191:economics / Q000458:organization & administration*