[Patient blood management--The inpatient care]

The multimodal concept of Patient Blood Management touches many aspects of in-hospital treatment. The goals are to preserve and strengthen the patients' own resources in order to avoid transfusion-associated adverse events. This can be achieved by meticulous minimization of perioperative blood loss and the enhancement and full utilization of individual anaemia tolerance. The transfusion of allogeneic blood products shall be guideline-based only. The proposed package of measures has immense potential to increase patient safety!