etanous

Posttransfusion testing is a policy that has been set in stone in my hospital for nearly 20 years, probably driven by accrediting inspectors(JCAHO, CAP) who asked for evidence that a given transfusion helped/hurt the patient. It was handed off to me when I was made Medical Director, and I have staunchly defended it without asking why we did it..until now. We have pre-transfusion testing in place as well. All this data is collected and forwarded to our Quality committee. Frankly, little action has resulted over the years, so I'm not sure we'll continue with the posttransfusion testing. I really appreciate the input from everyone.

Testing on the patient. H/H post RBC transfusion, PT/PTT post FFP transfusion, Plt count post platelet transfusion.

I have been requiring posttransfusion testing for PRBC's, platelets, and FFP for nearly twenty years. We are revising our blood bank policies and cannot find any standards for this in the Technical Manual or within the Standards booklet. Is this practice obsolete or am I looking in the wrong place? Thanks