INVENTORY MANAGEMENT IN SYDNEY-PUBLIC-HOSPITAL BLOOD-BANKS

Monitoring the outdating of donated units is one way of assessing the efficiency of blood usage. Inventory management in public hospital blo od banks in Sydney was reviewed with the aim of determining factors wh ich lead to the outdating of donor blood. Factors which correlated sig nificantly with increased outdating in hospitals included absence of a n effective hospital transfusion committee; high ratio of average inve ntory: units transfused; fewer than three routine deliveries from the BTS per day; increased time taken for delivery of urgent products; CT values greater than 2:1; premature performance of the crossmatch and p rolonged crossmatching holding time. Hospitals were informed of the in itial audit results and were alerted to the factors contributing to ex cessive outdating. They received monthly feedback of individual outdat ing results compared with overall outdating. After 6 months there was a significant reduction in overall outdating from 5.0 to 0.9% (P < 0.0 5), which has been maintained for a further 12 months. Changes in inve ntory management associated with an improvement in overall outdating i ncluded: changes in crossmatching practice which increase the effectiv e shelf-life of blood, knowledge of when blood was due to outdate and effective stock rotation.