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The impact of a closed-loop electronic blood transfusion system on transfusion errors and staff time in a children's
Yu Shi1, Chengjie Ye2, Hongsheng Wang3
1Division of Medical Administration National Children's Medical Center Children's Hospital of Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
Insights
Implementing a closed-loop electronic blood transfusion system significantly reduced transfusion errors and decreased staff time. This system enhances patient safety by improving the accuracy of patient and blood type identification during transfusions.
Area of Science:
- Medical technology
- Patient safety
- Healthcare informatics
Background:
- Transfusion errors pose a significant risk to patient safety.
- Manual processes in blood transfusions are prone to human error.
- Improving efficiency and accuracy in blood transfusion is a critical healthcare goal.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the effectiveness of a closed-loop electronic blood transfusion system.
- To quantify the reduction in transfusion errors after system implementation.
- To assess the impact on staff time dedicated to transfusion tasks.
Main Methods:
- A before-and-after study was conducted across all wards of a children's hospital.
- Key interventions included a closed-loop electronic system, barcode patient identification, electronic records, and error pop-up warnings.
- Primary outcome measures were the percentage of blood transfusion errors and time spent on transfusion tasks.
Main Results:
- Blood transfusion errors decreased from 3.87% to 0.78% (P<0.01).
- Specific errors related to patient identification and blood type matching were significantly reduced.
- Time spent on various transfusion tasks, including blood application and administration, was substantially decreased (P<0.01).
Conclusions:
- A closed-loop electronic blood transfusion system effectively reduces errors.
- Barcode patient identification and error warnings enhance the confirmation of patient and blood types.
- The implemented system leads to a significant reduction in time spent on blood transfusion tasks.
Objectives:
To assess the impact of a closed-loop electronic blood transfusion system on transfusion errors and staff time.
Materials And Methods:
Before and after study in all wards of a children's hospital, involving patients and staff of all the wards. The changes were closed-loop electronic blood transfusion, barcode patient identification, electronic blood transfusion administration records and error pop-up warning. The main outcome measures were percentage of blood transfusion errors, time spent on transfusion tasks.
Results:
Transfusion errors were identified in 3.87% of 2556 blood transfusion orders pre-intervention and 0.78% of 2577 orders afterwards (P<0.01). Phlebotomists, nurses, and physicians may make mistakes, including wrong blood type when apply for blood, wrong patient when blood draw or transfusion, wrong dose when apply for blood and the wrong tube label when blood draw or cross-matching, which are significantly reduced after change (1.09% vs 0.31%, 1.13% vs 0%, 0.31% vs 0%, 1.33% vs.0.78%, P<0.01). Time spent on blood apply was 5.3±1.2min, hand over blood bag at the transfusion department was 14.9±1.4min and blood transfusion was 15.8±2.4min. Time per transfusion round decreased to 2.6±1.0min, 6.3±1.6min and 9.3±2.2min respectively (P<0.01).
Conclusions:
A closed-loop electronic blood transfusion, barcode patient identification and error pop-up warning reduced transfusion errors, and increased confirmation of patient and blood types identity before transfusion. Time spent on blood transfusion tasks reduced.
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