COMPREHENSIVE QUESTIONNAIRE ON TRANSFUSION MEDICINE IN FISCAL 2005

—STUDY OF TRANSFUSION MANAGEMENT SYSTEM, HOSPITAL TRANSFUSION COMMITTEE AND APPROPRIATE TRANSFUSION THERAPY—

Abstract

A comprehensive questionnaire of transfusion medicine, including similar questions of the questionnaire in fiscal year 2004 as well as proposed guidelines for appropriate transfusion management (proposed guidelines) was sent to 1,355 hospitals in fiscal year 2005.
Replies were obtained from 857 hospitals (63.2%). Although a unified management system for blood components was established in 717 hospitals (84.0%) and a hospital transfusion committee (HTC) was established in 769 (90.3%), doctors responsible for transfusion (transfusionists) with full-time involvement in transfusion were present in only 75 hospitals (8.8%). Plasma derivatives such as albumin solutions (AS) were managed in the department of pharmacology in 833 hospitals (97.7%), while transfusion departments in only 285 hospitals (33.7%), had information on plasma derivatives used in the hospital. Among the five groups of hospitals categorized according to the number of beds and presence or absence of transfusionists, the discharge rate of blood components and the fresh frozen plasma or AS/red cells transfusion ratio were higher in the groups of hospitals without transfusionists (Table 1 and 6). The proposed guidelines were considered useful in 569 hospitals (74.1%), including that HTC activities based on practical guidelines are important to the establishment and maintenance of appropriate transfusion practices.