The PaBloE (Patient Blood Management in Europe) project

Abstract

Background Patient blood management (PBM) is a multi-disciplinary evidence based approach to the care of patients who might need transfusion. In 2014, the European Blood Alliance (EBA) facilitated the collaboration of 7 University Hospitals in Europe to form the PaBloE group. Aims – Derive good practices in PBM on focused indications from experience and expertise in the participating PaBloE teams; – promote a patient centredapproach; – conceive action plans easy, quick and cheap to implement. Methods Three surveys were conducted, using online questionnaires developed by the PaBloE group, to assess in the participating hospitals (953 to 3000 inpatient beds): – top indications for RBC use (all RBC transfusion episodes recorded during the 2nd week of May 2014); – PBM organisations and activities; – knowledge of PBM principles amongst clinicians. Results In the 1st survey 61% of 3367 RBC units assessed have been transfused for medical indications. The top three medical indications were: haematologicalanemias (30.1%), gastrointestinal bleeding (7.1%) and ICU patients (4.4%). The 2nd survey showed variable implementation of PBM, both in terms of organisations and availability of PBM measures. For 21% of respondents to the 3rd survey, preoperative anaemia (POA) is not a perioperative risk, and 38% think that the best way to treat POA is RBC transfusion prior to surgery. Conclusions PBM should be more focused on medical RBC transfusions, especially haematological anaemias. The information collected from the 3 surveys will serve to design measures and training programs to further develop awareness, implementation and assessment of PBM in European hospitals.