Blood Ordering and Transfusion Practices: An Insight Toward Better Utility of Blood Products

Background An adequate supply of quality blood products is the backbone of any hospital. To maintain it, the utilization and wastage of the products should be closely monitored. Objective To determine the crossmatch to transfusion (C/T) ratio, transfusion probability (%T), and transfusion index (Ti) of packed red blood cells and to review the use of platelets. Materials and methods A total of 6,326 hematological patients receiving packed red blood cells were included in the study. The random donor platelets that were prepared during this period were also included to know the actual utilization of platelets. Results A total of 26,146 crossmatches were requested for these 6,326 patients in three years. Out of these, 26,024 units were issued and transfused to the patients. The CT ratio of our data was calculated to be 1.00, the transfusion probability was found to be 98.1%, and the transfusion index was computed to be 0.99. For random donor platelets, 37,162 were prepared from whole blood during this period, while 30,971 platelets were transfused to the patients. Conclusion The overall results of our analysis showed proper utilization of blood products at our institution. The wastage was considered to be minimal.