title: Patient Blood Management in Europe: surveys on top indications for red blood cell use and Patient Blood Management organization and activities in seven European university hospitals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Patient Blood Management (PBM) in Europe is a working group of the European Blood Alliance with the initial objective to identify the starting position of the participating hospitals regarding PBM for benchmarking purposes, and to derive good practices in PBM from the experience and expertise in the participating teams with the further aim of implementing and strengthening these practices in the participating hospitals.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted two surveys in seven university hospitals in Europe: Survey on top indications for red blood cell use regarding usage of red blood cells during 1 week and Survey on PBM organization and activities.
  
  
  RESULTS
  A total of 3320 units of red blood cells were transfused in 1 week at the seven hospitals. Overall, 61% of red cell units were transfused to medical patients and 36% to surgical patients, although there was much variation between hospitals. The organization and activities of PBM in the seven hospitals were variable, but there was a common focus on optimizing the treatment of bleeding patients, monitoring the use of blood components and treatment of preoperative anaemia.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Although the seven hospitals provide a similar range of clinical services, there was variation in transfusion rates between them. Further, there was variable implementation of PBM activities and monitoring of transfusion practice. These findings provide a baseline to develop joint action plans to further implement and strengthen PBM across a number of hospitals in Europe.
authors: Department of Clinical Immunology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
authors: M T
authors: MT
authors: Bruun
authors: Department of Transfusion, Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Manchester, UK.|NHS Blood & Transplant, Manchester, UK.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Pendry
authors: Department of Clinical Immunology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Georgsen
authors: Banca del Sangue e del Plasma CPVE, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Manzini
authors: Banca del Sangue e del Plasma CPVE, Città della Salute e della Scienza di Torino, Torino, Italy.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Lorenzi
authors: Department of Clinical Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Karolinska University Hospital, Stockholm, Sweden.
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Wikman
authors: Hospital Blood Bank, Mater Dei University Hospital, Msida, Malta.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Borg-Aquilina
authors: Laboratory of Medical Immunology, Radboud University Medical Centre, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: van Pampus
authors: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sanquin Blood Bank, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: M
authors: M
authors: van Kraaij
authors: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Fischer
authors: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Meybohm
authors: Department of Anaesthesiology, Intensive Care Medicine and Pain Therapy, University Hospital Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: K
authors: K
authors: Zacharowski
authors: German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Wuerttemberg-Hessen, Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohaematology, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: C
authors: C
authors: Geisen
authors: German Red Cross Blood Service Baden-Wuerttemberg-Hessen, Institute of Transfusion Medicine and Immunohaematology, Frankfurt, Germany.
authors: E
authors: E
authors: Seifried
authors: Italian National Blood Centre, National Institute of Health, Rome, Italy.
authors: G M
authors: GM
authors: Liumbruno
authors: European Blood Alliance, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Folléa
authors: NHS Blood & Transplant, Manchester, UK.
authors: J
authors: J
authors: Grant-Casey
authors: NHS Blood & Transplant, Manchester, UK.
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Babra
authors: NHS Blood & Transplant, Manchester, UK.|Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, Oxford, UK.|University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors: M F
authors: MF
authors: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000740:Anemia / Q000628:therapy; D001793:Blood Preservation; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005060:Europe; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans
keywords: Patient Blood Management; blood components; red cell components; transfusion medicine (in general); transfusion strategy