title: How is national recipient hemovigilance conducted in the United States?
abstract: A national recipient hemovigilance system was introduced in the United States in 2010, when voluntary enrollment began as part of the National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) Hemovigilance Module. NHSN is a secure, Web-based surveillance system operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and used by US health care facilities to report a variety of patient safety information. The Hemovigilance Module is used for comprehensive monitoring of transfusion-related adverse events. Participating facilities can utilize analytic tools available within the module to identify opportunities for enhancing transfusion safety, evaluate the effectiveness of interventions, and compare facility specific transfusion-related data to aggregate national estimates. Data may be voluntarily shared by facilities with external partners for patient safety improvement initiatives and to fulfill reporting mandates. We describe the key characteristics of the Hemovigilance Module, highlight the benefits for participating facilities, and discuss the use of reported data for establishing national estimates of transfusion-associated adverse events to identify gaps in transfusion safety and opportunities for interventions. National hemovigilance systems are essential to recognize gaps in transfusion safety and identify opportunities for interventions to improve patient safety and outcomes.
authors.affiliation: Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Koo-Whang
authors.initials: KW
authors.lastname: Chung
authors.affiliation: Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Alexis
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Harvey
authors.affiliation: Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Sridhar V
authors.initials: SV
authors.lastname: Basavaraju
authors.affiliation: Office of Blood, Organ and Other Tissue Safety, Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion, National Center for Emerging Zoonotic and Infectious Diseases, US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia.
authors.forename: Matthew J
authors.initials: MJ
authors.lastname: Kuehnert
mesh_terms: D001771:Blood Banks / Q000592:standards; D058731:Blood Safety; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D002487:Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, U.S. / Q000458:organization & administration*; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D020407:Internet; D058996:Quality Improvement; D012107:Research Design; D065227:Transfusion Reaction; D014481:United States; D018875:Vocabulary, Controlled