Using Trends and Outliers in Managing Delayed Transfusions

Delayed transfusions may result in patient morbidity and mortality, but no standards for timely transfusion have been developed. Information technology tools could be implemented to identify gaps in provision of blood and to recognize areas of improvement. Herein, we propose that the time to initiate a blood transfusion after an informative laboratory test could feasibly be used by the transfusion medicine service as a metric to monitor for transfusion delays. Trends and outlier events could be further investigated and used to make decisions and implement protocols to improve patient care.