Background Patient blood management programs are gaining popularity as quality improvement and patient safety initiatives, but methods for implementing such programs across multihospital health systems are not well understood. Having recently incorporated a patient blood management program across our health system using a clinical community approach, we describe our methods and results. Methods We formed the Johns Hopkins Health System blood management clinical community to reduce transfusion overuse across five hospitals. This physician-led, multidisciplinary, collaborative, quality-improvement team (the clinical community) worked to implement best practices for patient blood management, which we describe in detail. Changes in blood utilization and blood acquisition costs were compared for the pre– and post–patient blood management time periods. Results Across the health system, multiunit erythrocyte transfusion orders decreased from 39.7 to 20.2% (by 49%; P < 0.0001). The percentage of patients transfused decreased for erythrocytes from 11.3 to 10.4%, for plasma from 2.9 to 2.2%, and for platelets from 3.1 to 2.7%, (P < 0.0001 for all three). The number of units transfused per 1,000 patients decreased for erythrocytes from 455 to 365 (by 19.8%; P < 0.0001), for plasma from 175 to 107 (by 38.9%; P = 0.0002), and for platelets from 167 to 141 (by 15.6%; P = 0.04). Blood acquisition cost savings were $2,120,273/yr, an approximate 400% return on investment for our patient blood management efforts. Conclusions Implementing a health system-wide patient blood management program by using a clinical community approach substantially reduced blood utilization and blood acquisition costs.

Editor’s Perspective What We Already Know about This Topic What This Article Tells Us That Is New Background Although randomized trials show that patients do well when given less blood, there remains a persistent impression that orthopedic surgery patients require a higher hemoglobin transfusion threshold than other patient populations (8 g/dl vs. 7 g/dl). The authors tested the hypothesis in orthopedic patients that implementation of a patient blood management program encouraging a hemoglobin threshold less than 7 g/dl results in decreased blood use with no change in clinical outcomes. Methods After launching a multifaceted patient blood management program, the authors retrospectively evaluated all adult orthopedic patients, comparing transfusion practices and clinical outcomes in the pre- and post-blood management cohorts. Risk adjustment accounted for age, sex, surgical procedure, and case mix index. Results After patient blood management implementation, the mean hemoglobin threshold decreased from 7.8 ± 1.0 g/dl to 6.8 ± 1.0 g/dl (P < 0.0001). Erythrocyte use decreased by 32.5% (from 338 to 228 erythrocyte units per 1,000 patients; P = 0.0007). Clinical outcomes improved, with decreased morbidity (from 1.3% to 0.54%; P = 0.01), composite morbidity or mortality (from 1.5% to 0.75%; P = 0.035), and 30-day readmissions (from 9.0% to 5.8%; P = 0.0002). Improved outcomes were primarily recognized in patients 65 yr of age and older. After risk adjustment, patient blood management was independently associated with decreased composite morbidity or mortality (odds ratio, 0.44; 95% CI, 0.22 to 0.86; P = 0.016). Conclusions In a retrospective study, patient blood management was associated with reduced blood use with similar or improved clinical outcomes in orthopedic surgery. A hemoglobin threshold of 7 g/dl appears to be safe for many orthopedic patients.

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