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Implementation of a new blood cooler insert and tracking technology with educational initiatives and its effect on reducing red blood cell wastage
Author(s) -
Fadeyi Emmanuel A.,
Emery Wanda,
Simmons Julie H.,
Jones Mary Rose,
Pomper Gregory J.
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
transfusion
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.045
H-Index - 132
eISSN - 1537-2995
pISSN - 0041-1132
DOI - 10.1111/trf.14234
Subject(s) - medicine , tracking (education) , blood bank , insert (composites) , red blood cell , operations management , emergency medicine , computer science , engineering , psychology , pedagogy , mechanical engineering
BACKGROUND The objective was to report a successful implementation of a blood cooler insert and tracking technology with educational initiatives and its effect on reducing red blood cell (RBC) wastage. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS The blood bank database was used to quantify and categorize total RBC units issued in blood coolers from January 2010 to December 2015 with and without the new inserts throughout the hospital. Radiofrequency identification tags were used with special software to monitor blood cooler tracking. An educational policy on how to handle the coolers was initiated. Data were gathered from the software that provided a real‐time location monitoring of the blood coolers with inserts throughout the institution. RESULTS The implementation of the blood cooler with inserts and tracking device reduced mean yearly RBC wastage by fourfold from 0.64% to 0.17% between 2010 and 2015. The conserved RBCs corresponded to a total cost savings of $167,844 during the 3‐year postimplementation period. CONCLUSIONS The implementation of new blood cooler inserts, tracking system, and educational initiatives substantially reduced the mean annual total RBC wastage. The cost to implement this initiative may be small if there is an existing institutional infrastructure to monitor and track hospital equipment into which the blood bank intervention can be adapted when compared to the cost of blood wastage.