Development and Implementation of Real-Time Web-Based Dashboards in a Multisite Transfusion Service

Area of Science:

• Medical Informatics
• Laboratory Management
• Healthcare Operations

Background:

• Hospital transfusion services face challenges in efficient blood product inventory management.
• Off-the-shelf business intelligence solutions may be resource-prohibitive for laboratories.
• Manual processes for inventory and cooler tracking are time-consuming and prone to error.

Purpose of the Study:

• To develop and implement real-time, web-based dashboards for blood product inventory and cooler management.
• To replace manual tracking systems with an in-house, cost-effective digital solution.
• To improve workflow and efficiency in hospital transfusion services.

Main Methods:

• Developed custom web-based dashboards using HTML, CSS, and PHP.
• Extracted real-time data from Sunquest Laboratory Information Systems (v7.3) refreshed every 2 minutes.
• Hosted data internally and accessed dashboards via institutional web servers and shortcuts.

Main Results:

• Implemented customizable, dynamic, and secure dashboards for inventory and cooler status.
• Utilized dashboard data to maintain adequate blood supply and prevent excess inventory.
• Facilitated transfer of short-dated products to minimize wastage and improve resource allocation.

Conclusions:

• Dashboard technology is readily implementable in transfusion services with minimal capital investment.
• Real-time dashboards provide on-demand monitoring, replacing manual processes with an intuitive electronic tool.
• This approach enhances blood product management efficiency and reduces operational burden.