clhunt23

I just answered this question. My Score FAIL  

Thanks for your reply!

A very hot topic amongst hospital administrators these days (at least in my neck of the woods) is viewing blood as a 'supply' a therefore requiring oversite from the executive level. Our executive team hired an outside consultant to examine our blood supplier, pricing, and utilization. When discussing benchmarks for inventory they stated a combination of C:T ratio, wastage, and days of inventory should be utilized to determine appropriateness of RBC inventory levels. I agreed with the consultant and already monitor all of these benchmarks monthly. In all of the research and talking I've done with our consultants, blood centers, and other professionals the industry standard for RBC inventory is 3 to 5 days for hospitals, and 4 to 7 days for trauma/transplant centers/univerisity hospitals. We are a large health system including a trauma center and transfuse >12,000 RBCs annually. Our comfort zone for RBCS is 7.0 days of inventory. Our executive administration wants us to be in the middle not the upper end of the range. Can anyone else provide an honest snap shot of their available RBC inventory? I promise I won't tell your hospital Administration! I apologize if this duplicates a topic, but I couldn't find it anywhere on the website.

Does anyone have a suggestion for keeping a transfusion tag attached to a product while being transfused using a rapid infuser? We've recently revised our transfusion policy and highlighted the requirement to keep the transfusion tag attached to the product for the duration of the transfusion. One of our Anesthesiologists asked how they are supposed to keep the tags attached and intact while being pushed through a rapid infuser. Our concern is the tag will not be recognizable or suitable for documentation once the procedure is complete. Any advice would be appreciated.

Regina, I am in the same situation. We currently perform very few audits and only have minimal Nursing involvement. Can you also send your checklist to me? Thanks! Christy Hunt christy.hunt@crozer.org