Bob Roda is the President and CEO of Hemosonics.
Hospitals face tough economic times and tight budgets. The American Hospital Association recently noted that hospitals are under financial pressure as care costs surge. Operational costs are also skyrocketing. These economic issues have severe consequences, including the closure of needed rural hospitals, decreased quality of care and a shortage of doctors and nurses.
However, there are ways to address these challenges and transform hospitals, such as using blood supplies better and more sparingly. Blood acquisition remains one of the most significant expenses for hospital blood banks.
Emerging science and better blood management practices offer a chance to reduce blood usage and can be part of a comprehensive strategy to conserve resources. Both emerging technology and clinical processes and practices help with blood management. Point-of-care management systems help direct hospitals to use the right blood products when needed. Automation via technology also ensures that hospitals use the right amount and types of blood products. Finally, blood management software helps hospitals manage supplies, costs and donor lists.
Preserving blood is also entirely possible, thanks to two developments. The first is patient blood management. The practice argues that the best blood is a patient’s own and aims to reduce transfusions and blood product usage whenever possible. Blood is treated like a vital organ rather than an expendable resource. The second— viscoelastic testing—analyzes the properties of a clot as it forms in a blood sample—and allows medical professionals to quickly determine what, if any, blood products should be used during procedures like surgery. A 2023 Journal of Cardiothoracic Surgery study showed that this type of testing cut blood component use by up to 90% and helped save blood for others in need. The cost of blood products also decreased by 41%.
Changes within hospitals with better blood care can be transformational. Hospitals will save money and blood resources and offer the best possible care for the patients. Here are three ways how:
Better Blood Usage Is Better Economics
Hospital executives are under enormous pressure to make ends meet, lower costs and reduce time in ICUs while improving patient outcomes. However, doing this can be a challenge. Hospitals must pay to acquire blood and associated blood products, and they take on additional costs, including blood bank work, laboratory tests, IV costs, investigations of complications, clerical work by non-blood bank personnel, wastage/outdating and blood administration.
When hospitals use less blood and reduce product waste, these costs decrease. Hospitals will spend less money to purchase blood and blood products, and as a result, they need to perform far fewer expensive transfusions, freeing up blood supplies and resources. The more hospitals work to be stewards of their resources, the more they can improve the bottom line and help save resources for critical needs.
Better Blood Usage Leads To Healthier Patients
With better blood management, patients have fewer worries, more successful procedures and shorter hospital stays. This is true whether patients are experiencing a life-threatening event or undergoing a routine medical procedure.
In massive hemorrhages, generic transfusion regimes result in some patients being over-treated and others inadequately supported. Rapid and accurate assessments of hemostasis using the above testing method helps doctors intervene precisely and promptly when it matters.
Over-transfusion is a problem, particularly in cardiac and trauma surgery. Cardiac surgery accounts for an estimated 15% to 20% of all blood transfusions. The Society of Thoracic Surgeons (STS) has linked the transfusion of a single unit of red blood cells, fresh frozen plasma or platelet concentrates, to increased postoperative complications and mortality in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) and aortic valve replacement (AVR) cases. Regardless of the type of surgery, only transfusing blood when necessary helps patients during recovery and in the long term.
Better Blood Usage Prevents Crisis Operation
Not only are blood supplies expensive, but they are scarce. The American Red Cross declared a blood shortage crisis in early 2024. Supplies are still low. Overtransfusion, poor management of blood resources and lack of available donors are the primary reasons blood supplies get low. Hospitals scramble to ensure they have enough blood.
More mindful blood management and usage—through fewer transfusions, patient blood management and improved testing— conserves blood when needed. Hospitals will run better, and care will be more robust when a shortage of critical resources like blood doesn’t hamper medical professionals.
The Big Picture: One Part Of The Solution
Better use of blood resources will not free hospitals from all their concerns or change a hospital’s bottom line within weeks. Hospitals must also look at other options to transform care, like digital medicine, energy efficiency and prioritizing patient satisfaction. Blood management, however, is one immediate step hospitals can take to keep the focus where it belongs: helping patients when they need it the most. Better use of blood supplies would be a boon to hospital finances, help hospitals run more efficiently and without resource shortages and ultimately improve patient care.
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