Patients' involvement and the improvement of patient blood management

Abstract

Introduction: Patient blood management (PBM) is of prime importance today for the preservation and conservation of health resources and for patient safety. To fulfill the goal of appropriate use of blood and blood components, all the shareholders involved in patient treatment, particularly patients themselves should play an effective role. Materials and Methods: The present research aims to evaluate the status of patients' rights, patient awareness-raising efforts, and the consequent informed consent for transfusion order purposes in hospitals. To this end, the interview was conducted on 181 patients under surgery. The data were finally analyzed using SPSS software version 23. Results: In the present study, 109 men and 72 women were interviewed, of whom only 15 patients (8.25%) were aware of the likelihood of blood transfusion pre- or perioperative and further only 5 (2.76%) had received the adequate information on (dis) advantages of blood transfusion. Finally, after we provided precise information about (dis) advantages of blood transfusion and the alternatives, it came out to be known that the patients' decision out of the four choices of (1) homologous transfusion, (2) preoperative anemia treatment, (3) postoperative anemia treatment, and (4) autologous transfusion is estimated to be significant before they were given information compared with that of after. Discussion: The status of information sharing with patients and that of the patient informed consent procedure in Iran hospitals are weak and require serious reconsideration as far as patients' rights are concerned. Informing patients on (dis) advantages of blood transfusion and the alternatives can be a very effective measure in PBM success in Iran.