Patterns of Blood Utilization by Physicians: Transfusion of Nonoperated Anemic Patients

Abstract

Prior studies suggested that a high percentage of blood transfusions to hospital patients are unnecessary. If such transfusions can be reduced, more blood would be made available for those patients with legitimate blood requirements. In this study, the blood transfusion was analyzed of 401 nonoperated hospital patients with anemia as the final diagnosis explaining admission, and with admission Hg values .gtoreq. 10 gm/dl. These patients were drawn from a 300 hospital sample distributed across the USA. Descriptive data showing the extent to which this selected population of patients is transfused with blood must be considered as 1 measure of unnecessary blood tranfusion in this country. Hospital-based programs designed to identify and eliminate unnecessary blood transfusions should be established. The 1st step in the creation of such programs at the hospital level must be the development of guidelines for blood tranfusion derived through the cooperative efforts of hospital physicians who fully understand and accept the rationale for them. Once guidelines for blood transfusion are established in a hospital, transfusion practice need only be measured against them.