AABB’s Transfusion Safety and Patient Blood Management (TS/PBM) Subsection recently released the latest article in its “PBM Column” series, “Blood Belongs in the Patient, Not in a Tube.” In this complimentary resource, Jennifer Rhamy, MBA, MA, MT(ASCP)SBB, HP, director of St. Mary’s Regional Blood Donor Center, examines the causes of and best practices to prevent iatrogenic, or hospital-acquired, anemia.
She also discusses the potential role of unnecessary lab testing in contributing to iatrogenic anemia and explores how perceptions of daily lab testing among medical personnel may affect the incidence of unnecessary orders. The column concludes with examples of successful interventions – such as establishing systems to reduce the number of test orders and the volume of each draw – and the effect of these interventions on the incidence of iatrogenic anemia.
Additional PBM resources are available on AABB’s PBM Resources web page.