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B+ when transfusing blood.

Blood Groups

Blood transfusions in hospitals are a common occurrence to treat a number of conditions and diseases, from traumatic events to sickle cell. They are becoming more and more common for a variety of conditions, it now a medical specialty called transfusion medicine. Blood must be matched, at a minimum by type (ABO compatibility) for emergencies, but as transfusions have become more common to treat other conditions, additional testing and matching will occur for various other antibodies. Transfusions are largely regarded as a last resort when other treatment methods have failed, and related critical events are rare, depending on source 0.2%-1%, but they are still common and necessary occurrences. Critical to the safety of transfusions is ensuring that right blood gets to the right patient.

Each blood component must be tracked to ensure that when a patient needs it, they are receiving blood that is compatible, from the blood type to different antibodies in the components. Information systems help ensure this safety by providing a means for tracking blood products, which go through multiple processing steps after donation and are often collected far from the recipient.

Once blood products arrive in the hospital, they will often undergo additional testing to further discriminate sub types and antibodies. Patients that have received multiple transfusions are more likely to have antibodies against certain bloods, increasing the risk of a transfusion, increasing the need for more checks. Within the hospitals ordering blood products follows a similar pathway to medication ordering and administration, which was discussed in last week’s blog.

Similar to pharmacies, blood banks (where the blood is stored and distributed) often have a dedicated system for testing and tracking blood products. These systems are connected to the hospitals EHRs for physician ordering, distribution, and finally administration by the nursing staff. At any point along the chain if a connection is broken there can be a safety consideration that is missed. Healthcare workers are extremely vigilant when ordering, dispensing, and administering blood products, each step along the way involves checks and double checks to ensure safety.  As complexity in matching grows, the risk for missing a critical element increases.  As a safety double check blood products will be electronically scanned at each step, including administration, to make sure the right blood is being administered.

As the utilization of blood products increases to treat more and more diseases and conditions, and more specific matching becomes ever more critical, there is always an increased likelihood that a break in one of these systems can cause a critical check or piece of information to be missed. Transfusion events are rare, but they do occur, and it is often because of an unknown on the patient side. Until a patient receives a transfusion, we may not know how they will react.

If a transfusion event does occur, there is a process that occurs to figure out why. Critical to this process is knowing what blood was administered, it’s components and sources, and why the patient had a reaction. All of this information is documented, not only in the EHR, but also in the blood bank systems, to ensure that the risk of future events can be minimized, not only for that patient, but for other patients as well.

Interconnected systems ensure the safety of the blood supply and the safe administration of life saving therapies for patients in need. Are we positive these systems are operating as they should be? Can we B+ that all critical information and safety checks are happening as expected?

Tido provides automated end to end monitoring solutions that will automatically alert your teams there is a disruption.

Blood donation and transfusions remain safe and effective treatments to help those in need. For more information on donating blood, please visit the American Red Cross.

What is FHIR and what is the impact on health system? Free webinar for health systems with Q&A session.

This webinar is for health system CIOs, CMIOs, Directors, and Managers. 20 min presentation and 10 min Q&A.

Things you will learn:

  • Basics of FHIR
  • How FHIR enables digital transformation for health systems?
  • How FHIR enables healthcare technology innovations?
  • Real world examples of FHIR used in health system

Book your free spot:

Speakers:

COO Vik Patel, COO, Tido Inc.

Vik started out working for a health system and has more than 15 years experience working in the health technology industry. As part of Tido Inc., Vik works with health systems in US and Canada, and manages Tido’s integration and digital teams.

Focus on the integration strategy. Don’t lose on patient care, workflow, and revenue!

 healthcare Integration
Integrated health system plays a very important part in delivering top notch patient care, and sustaining healthcare system. There are numerous systems and solutions available in the market today to assist with healthcare integration. Most healthcare organizations have some type of solution in place to manage integration, though there are many health organizations that still have point to point interfaces in place.
 
Strategy Recognition
Even if a health system has some integration product in place does not always mean that the integration solution is providing the most meaningful and efficient information flow to improve patient care.
Mission of health systems in some form or the other is to deliver exceptional patient care and improve overall health of the population. Health systems focused on this end result of providing exceptional patient care should focus on improving organization’s communication and integration efficiency as integration brings together all systems within the health system and external partners.
Focusing on improving organization’s information flow requires recognition and commitment to developing an integration strategy.
Organizations that overlook need to develop and execute an integration strategy might lose on patient care, workflow, employee efficiency, and revenue.
 
What is successful integration?
Do we consider a connection and exchange of data between two systems successful integration? Maybe, if all you are focused on is the short term goal of exchange of data between the two systems.
But if you want assurance that your integration is successful and will meet your organizations’ short-term and long-term goals, then your integration should adhere to carefully planned integration strategy.
 
What is Integration Strategy?
Sorry to disappoint but there is no one-size-fits-all model for integration strategy and successful integration. Integration strategy follows basic principles for healthcare integration such as:
 
  • Focus on patient’s needs, engagement, and participation
  • Continued patient care across all points of access
  • Commitment to quality of services and continuous care improvement
  • Use of latest technologies for efficient communication-information flow and protect personal health information
  • Treatment and care interventions linked to clinical outcomes
  • Engage providers with integration of provider ambulatory clinics
Integration strategy is customized for each organization. Strategy includes assessment of current environment, performing a gap analysis of technology, resources, and processes. Integration strategy should clearly define strategic initiatives needed for the organization and a roadmap to achieve these initiatives.
 
Don’t lose on this opportunity
As per Gartner’s latest forecast, IT spending is going to reach $3.85 trillion in 2019, and communications counts for biggest IT spending. Investing in integration solutions and resources will continue to increase however organizations with a clear integration strategy will maximize potential of their investments in integration solutions and resources for successful continuum of care across all points of access and increase in patient satisfaction.