title: An international survey on the role of the hospital transfusion committee.
abstract: Hospital transfusion committees (HTCs) can oversee all aspects of transfusion practice at a hospital. This survey sought to identify which quality variables were being reported at HTCs around the world.
  
  
  
  A working party composed of members of the Biomedical Excellence for Safer Transfusion (BEST) collaborative developed a survey of quality variables that could be potentially presented at HTC meetings. The survey was electronically sent to all BEST members who were encouraged to complete it if they were active on an HTC and to send it to other colleagues with similar experience. An expert panel was convened to determine which quality variables are the most important for review at HTC meetings.
  
  
  
  There were 121 respondents; the majority were from Europe (52%), Asia (19%), or North America (19%). Most respondents (68%) were at university hospitals. Of the 117 (97%) respondents with an HTC, the committee most often met quarterly (42%) and reviewed transfusion reactions (79%) and risk management-reported events (52%). The HTCs most commonly included transfusion medicine physicians, anesthesiologists, and other physicians who regularly transfuse blood products. Some of the most commonly reported quality variables included number of blood products transfused, wasted, and expired and the number of improperly labeled specimens. The expert panel analysis revealed that some variables that were deemed important were not being frequently reported at HTCs.
  
  
  
  There is variability in the variables being reported at HTCs around the world with some important variables not frequently reported.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Pittsburgh and the Institute for Transfusion Medicine, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
authors.forename: Mark H
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Yazer
authors.affiliation: Department of Hemotherapy and Hemostasis, University Clinic Hospital, IDIBAPS, University of Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain.
authors.forename: Miguel
authors.identifier: 0000-0003-2593-833X
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lozano
authors.affiliation: University of Vermont Medical Center, Burlington, Vermont.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Fung
authors.affiliation: Department of Hemotherapy and Cell Therapy, Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Jose
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kutner
authors.affiliation: NHS Blood & Transplant, Oxford University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, and University of Oxford, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Michael F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Murphy
authors.affiliation: Laboratory of Clinical Biochemistry and Department of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen, Norway.
authors.forename: Torunn
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Oveland Apelseth
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Institute of Hematology and Transfusion Medicine, Warsaw, Poland.
authors.forename: Ryszard
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pogłód
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine, Institute of Immunology and Transfusion Medicine, University Medicine Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany.
authors.forename: Kathleen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Selleng
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine and Department of Laboratory Medicine & Pathology, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
authors.forename: Alan
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Tinmouth
authors.affiliation: Hospital Sirio Libanes Blood Bank, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
authors.forename: Silvano
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Wendel
authors.affiliation: Department of Transfusion Medicine and Apheresis, Rabin Medical Center, Petach Tikva, Israel.
authors.forename: Vered
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Yahalom
mesh_terms: D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000592:standards* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006785:Hospitals, University; D006801:Humans; D038622:Internationality; D011356:Product Labeling; D011367:Professional Staff Committees / Q000592:standards*; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care / Q000379:methods*; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D011795:Surveys and Questionnaires; D064826:Transfusion Medicine / Q000592:standards*; D000078329:Workforce