Analysis of hospital blood components wastage in Iran (2005-2015)

Although blood components are precious resources, their wastage is still a problem in hospitals all over the world. As no comprehensive study has evaluated hospital wastage in Iran, the main aim of the study was to identify the wastage as a percentage of issue during 2005-2015 and the secondary objective was to focus on the reasons of the blood components wastage.

Wastage as a percentage of issues was calculated for red blood cells, plasma and platelet concentrate separately. Also, for each product, the percentage of wastage was calculated as the number of units wasted for each reason divided by the total number of units wasted.

The wastage rate of red blood cells, plasma and platelet concentrate was 5.7 ± 0.7, 1.4 ± 0.4, and 3.2 ± 0.5, respectively. The main cause of red blood cells, plasma, and platelet concentrate wastage was date expiry and reserved/returned units of operating room and or ward. In 2015 compared to 2005, despite a significant decrease (p value<0.0001) in red blood cells and plasma expired units, there was a remarkable increase in expired PC units (p value<0.0001). In contrast to expired units, there was a significant increase (p value<0.0001) in reserved/returned units of operating room and or ward for red blood cells and plasma.

Time expiry and reserved/returned from operating room were the most important reasons of blood component wastage. The percentage of wastage could be decreased by implementing MSBOS program and designing a software application for efficient management of reserved hospital inventories.