Optimizing blood product utilization: A whole lot to gain and nothing to lose!

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e18669 Background: Transfusion stewardship is a vital part of managing patients with hematologic malignancies (HM). Blood products are limited resources and blood product transfusion (txn) is costly and poses complications. Randomized trials in different clinical settings have shown that a conservative txn strategy is not inferior to more liberal txn strategy. As a result, the AABB and ASCO have recommended following a conservative txn strategy in patients with cancer (hemoglobin (hg) <7-8g/dL and platelets (plt) <10K in stable non-bleeding patients). Here we report our early outpatient institution’s experience implementing a contemporary txn approach in patients with HM. Methods: We formed a multi-disciplinary team to analyze blood product utilization. Overutilization was defined as orders for multi-units, packed red blood cells (pRBC) for hg >8 or plt for plt >10K in stable non-bleeding patients. Patients’ charts were audited during the baseline period to understand practice patterns. Data were collected using Qlik database. The baseline period (May 1, 2019-Feb 29, 2020) was compared to the intervention period (March 1 – December 31, 2020). A root cause analysis was performed. When possible 2-sided paired T-test was performed. If not possible, descriptive statistics were performed. Three interventions were developed and implemented sequentially: March 2020 – Blood bank began real-time review of blood products overutilization. May 2020 – Electronic Medical Record txn order set was revised to reflect recommended best practices. October 2020 –Txn guidelines revised for patients with HM. Results: During the study period, there were 3,227 pRBC and 2,817 plt transfused units in the outpatient setting. Monthly pRBC txn decreased from (mean(SD)) 168.5 (16.6) to 154.2(16.4) (p value: 0.14). Monthly plt txn decreased from 166.5 (26.5) to 115.2 (26.2) (p value: 0.001). Rates of multi-unit orders decreased significantly. Average monthly multi-unit orders decreased for pRBC (pre-48.6(5.9);post-24.3(7.6);p value 0.00007) and plts (pre-67.4(11.8);post-21.3(23.3);p value: 0.0002). Average hb at time of txn in the pre- and post-intervention period was 7.47 and 7.22. The percentage of txn in which the indication for txn was hb <7, 7-8, >8 changed from 34.6% to 56.3%, 52.6% to 32.8%, and 12.8% to 10.9% respectively. There was no significant increase in admissions for bleeding or increase in number of outpatient visits during the study period. Conclusions: Over 10-months, we significantly reduced outpatient blood product. Robust quality improvement methodology, engaging key stakeholders, and changing the culture of outpatient management were keys to success. To date, we have not seen any unintended consequences of these changes. These results are encouraging, as outpatient transfusion stewardship is thought to be harder given concerns about patients not being monitored as closely as in the inpatient setting.