An international study of the performance of sample collection from patients

Abstract

The rate of mislabelled samples and miscollected samples is 1000-10,000-fold more frequent than the risk of viral infection. Rates of mislabelled samples and WBIT can be tracked as key indicators of performance of an important step in the clinical transfusion process. WBIT episodes represent important 'near-miss' errors. By providing baseline performance data for the collection of patient blood samples, this study may be useful in formulating future national standards of performance for sample collection from patients.

Transfusion-related mortality: the ongoing risks of allogeneic blood transfusion and the available strategies for their prevention

“…Evolving technologies (such as barrier systems and bar codes) improve safety and efficiency, 33,34 while the presence of national patient identification systems in Sweden and Finland has been associated with rates of miscollected samples too low to estimate. 35 Reported fatalities due to HTRs secondary to non-ABO antibodies have, however, increased in the United States. In 2005 to 2007, non-ABO antibodies were implicated in 69.2% of all fatal HTRs.…”

Blood sampling - Two sides to the story

“…the transfusion of the correct blood component [1]. International evidence cited for WBIT incidents is between 1 in every 1,500 -3,000 of blood samples taken [2,3]. In the United Kingdom (UK), the Serious Hazards of Transfusion (SHOT) organisation is an independent haemovigilance scheme providing an annual comprehensive analysis and summary of national data associated with transfusion incidents.…”

Technology for Enhanced Transfusion Safety

“…We reported results of a large multicenter international study that examined the frequency of mis-labeled or mis-collected blood bank samples submitted to 62 hospitals. 18 We found that the median hospital performance resulted in a rate for mis-labeling of 1 in every 165 samples (6.1 per 1000; interquartile range 1.2-17 per 1000). Mis-collected samples demonstrating WBIT occurred at a median rate of 1 in every 1986 samples (0.5 per 1000; interquartile range < 0.3-0.9 per 1000).…”