Blood Management program in smaller hospital

[Mabel Adams]

Dr. Hannon, do you have anything really short and to the point on blood management--maybe a list of bullet points--that we could show to physicians to start to educate them that giving blood isn't harmless and sometimes doesn't help as much as they think it will? On another thread someone referenced doctors giving FFP for pradaxa overdose because "they have to do something" and FFP is harmless.

[THannonMD]

You can download a flyer we made called "The Bloody Truth" which lists ten facts about blood transfusion every clinician, administrator and patient should know. It is available at http://www.bloodmanagement.com/the-bloody-truth/the-bloody-truth

[Mabel Adams]

Just what I needed! Thanks.

[pbaker]

It has now been almost a year since we "started" our blood management program and we are absolutely getting no where. The lab and hospital medical directors have totally changed their tune and are now hesitant to cross the physicians. We just keep gathering data about how many extra transfusions we give, but we do nothing about it! We have finally involved our blood supplier (which I suggested a year ago) and they are bringing some education to the physicians.

I feel as if I am just banging my head against the wall!!!!!:disbelief

[NrsLcky]

Blood Management program, I very interest in how to start a program up..and what JC looks for.

[bmarotto]

I feel as if I am just banging my head against the wall!!!!!:disbelief

What we found very helpful was to have a clinician buy into the program and work with the Blood Bank director to educate all clinical staff. We were fortunate to have a new intensivist who had an interest in Blood Management. Together, they visited every clinical department to outline the program. There was also a required online learning course. Our order sets are still on paper but physicians are required to select a reason for transfusion from an approved list. There is an "other" category where they can justify why they are transfusing outside of guidelines. There is a note that "other" reasons are subject to peer review. If there is no reason indicated, we request the order to be resent.

We are about four months since go-live and red cell transfusions are down significantly (approx 8%). We thought it could be the summer months but our September numbers were also down. Time will tell.....