Improving communication of inpatient blood transfusion events to GPs

Abstract

Patients who have had blood transfusions whilst in hospital must have this information communicated to their General Practitioner at discharge. Audit demonstrated that just 50% of patients (n=15) under medical specialties who had undergone a blood transfusion had this information included in their discharge letter. To improve this, a section was specifically designated on the e-discharge pro-forma for the documentation of blood transfusion events, and focused teaching was delivered to all new FY1 doctors at their induction. Post intervention, 80% of blood transfusions occurring in medical patients were documented on the e-discharge, with an improvement in how detailed this documentation was (n=40). This simple intervention is an easily reproducible, cost neutral method of ensuring that more blood transfusion events are communicated to patients' GPs; improving care and reducing risk.