Analysis of Blood and Blood Component Wastage and its Reasons among Various Departments in a Tertiary Care Teaching Hospital in Southern India

Introduction: The main aim of many blood centers are to supply sufficient amount of safe blood and blood components whenever required. Shortage of blood may be due to low donation rate, inadequate storage, improper transportation and wastage at ward side. Wastage of blood can have a negative impact on blood transfusion services. Aim: To determine the rates of wastage of blood and blood components units at the ward side and identify the various reasons for wastage and explain the strategies to reduce the wastage rate. Materials and Methods: This retrospective study was conducted in the Department of Transfusion Medicine, Sri Venkateswara Institute of Medical Sciences, Tirupati, Andhra Pradesh, India from January 2018 to December 2020. The data was collected from the blood centre record. All blood and blood components issued during the study period were included in the study. The number, type and blood group of blood and blood components issued, the number of blood units wasted after issue, and the reason for wastage was collected. The collected data were entered in Microsoft excel and analysed using Statistical Package for the Social Science (SPSS) version 21.0. Descriptive statistics were performed as necessary. Results: During the study period, a total of 69198 units of blood and blood components were issued to different wards and operation theatres in the hospital. Among the total issues, 26863 (38.82%) were in the form of Packed Red Blood Cells (PRBC), 3968 (5.73%) in the form of Whole Blood (WB), 26069 (37.67%) in the form of Fresh Frozen Plasma (FFP), 11272 (16.29%) in the form of Random Donor Platelets (RDP), 933 (1.35%) in the form of Cryoprecipitate (CP) and 93 (0.13%) in the form of Single Donor Platelets (SDP). Among issued, 115 (0.17%) of blood and blood components were wasted with packed red cells accounting for 51 (44.35%). Among the various reasons, 43 (37.39%) was due to demise of patients before transfusion was initiated, followed by non requirement by the patients due to no loss/minimal loss blood during surgery 24 (20.87%). Majority of blood and blood components were wasted by the Department of Emergency Medicine (EMD) 36 (31.3%) followed by the Department of Neurology 20 (17.39%) and Orthopaedics 12 (10.43%). Conclusion: Implementation of proper blood transfusion policies and continuous educational programs in coordination with clinicians and staff nurses at ward side and operation theatres will help to decrease the blood wastage at ward side.