Evaluation of non-compliance of transfusion requests of packed red blood cells

Abstract

Background: Despite legislative acts develloped, many deficiencies were identified in blood requests at the National Blood TransfusionCenter impedding board and blood safety.
Aim : to evaluate the conformity of the different topics of packed red blood cells requests to the legislation.
Methods: Our study was prospective descriptive lasting six months (March-August 2011). It assessed all packed red blood cells requests which reached the national blood transfusion center.
Results: 16064 packed red blood cells requests from 21 public institutions and 28 private institutions were studied. There was different deficiencies in each item.The absence of birth date in 67.18% of request represented the largest non-compliance within administrative information. A predominance of shortcomings related to transfusion and obstetric history was recorded for clinical information with absence of date of the last transfusion in 91.72% cases, lack of accuracy of any previous transfusion reactions in 88.63% cases and absence of the number of previous pregnancies in 93.15% of transfusion requests prescribed to women. Non-conformities related to the prescribing physician concerned mainly the phone number which was absent in 55.82% of cases.
Conclusions: This study revealed a significant lack of awareness of physicians in relation to the law governing transfusion. It is therefore essential to develop training for prescribers to improve transfusion safety.