Error reporting in transfusion medicine at a tertiary care centre: a patient safety initiative

Errors in the transfusion process can compromise patient safety. A study was undertaken at our center to identify the errors in the transfusion process and their causes in order to reduce their occurrence by corrective and preventive actions.

All near miss, no harm events and adverse events reported in the 'transfusion process' during 1 year study period were recorded, classified and analyzed at a tertiary care teaching hospital in North India.

In total, 285 transfusion related events were reported during the study period. Of these, there were four adverse (1.5%), 10 no harm (3.5%) and 271 (95%) near miss events. Incorrect blood component transfusion rate was 1 in 6031 component units. ABO incompatible transfusion rate was one in 15,077 component units issued or one in 26,200 PRBC units issued and acute hemolytic transfusion reaction due to ABO incompatible transfusion was 1 in 60,309 component units issued. Fifty-three percent of the antecedent near miss events were bedside events. Patient sample handling errors were the single largest category of errors (n=94, 33%) followed by errors in labeling and blood component handling and storage in user areas.

The actual and near miss event data obtained through this initiative provided us with clear evidence about latent defects and critical points in the transfusion process so that corrective and preventive actions could be taken to reduce errors and improve transfusion safety.