Higher Quality Healthcare Correlates with Lower Blood Transfusion Rates

In a previous life in the 1970s, I was a blood banker at a large academic hospital. This may sound unbelievable to some of the currentLab Soft News readers but one of our cardiac surgeons in the 1970's would often transfuse six or more units of blood during a CABG (see: Variation in Use of Blood Transfusion in Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Surgery). Although modern blood transfusion can be life-saving, it can sometimes be a substitute for controlling hemorrhage by other and more appropriate means. In other words, less transfusion can often be equated with higher quality care. There is also a financial benefit when a hospital seeks to lower blood utilization rates. This point was reinforced in a recent article (see:Hospitals see improved outcomes, lower costs as blood transfusions drop). Below is an excerpt from it:Hospitals across the country have been cutting back on their use of blood, saving them money and improving patient outcomes, according to a new study.Premier, the nation's largest group purchasing organization, found that since its last analysis in 2012 blood utilization has been cut nearly in half across the 10 procedures that use the most blood without compromising quality of care. Rates of mortality, complications and readmissions fell in that same timeframe.The GPO's nationwide analysis of 645 hospitals spanning 2011 through the first half of 2016 revealed a 20% decrease in blood utilization across 134 diagnoses that account for the vast majorit...
Source: Lab Soft News - Category: Laboratory Medicine Authors: Tags: Blood banking Clinical Lab Industry News Cost of Healthcare Lab Industry Trends Medical Research Quality of Care Source Type: blogs