Restructuring Canada's Blood System: what will be the impact on hospitals?

With the amount of publicity given to the Commission of Inquiry on the Blood System in Canada (Krever Commission), hospitals will be pressured to change policies and procedures regarding transfusions and the use of drug alternatives to surgical blood transfusions. Over the next year, hospital administrators will be forced to implement changes regarding allocation of resources, upgrades to information systems and revised patient care practices for patients requiring transfusions or blood alternatives. At a series of focus groups organized by the Canadian College of Health Service Executives and Janssen-Ortho Inc. in early 1996, 57 health care administrators from across Canada discussed their vision of how the Krever Commission has and will affect hospital policies and procedures over the next few years. This article summarizes the groups' findings relating to the changes that hospital administrators are likely to implement across Canada in the next two to three years as a result of the Commission's activities.