AMAMI BLOOD ROTATION: APPROACHES FOR EFFICIENTBLOOD PRODUCT USE AT A CORE HOSPITAL ON A REMOTE ISLAND WITH SUPPORT FROM SEVERAL COLLABORATIVE MEDICAL INSTITUTIONS

Abstract

"Amami Blood Rotation (BR) " is a collaborative project developed among four medical institutions, a blood center, and our hospital in Kagoshima Prefecture, Japan. BR allows the return and re-delivery of blood, and a consequent reduction in the amount of discarded blood. It achieves this by ensuring blood quality using blood transport refrigerators (ATRs).

In the current system, an ATR containing 5 bags of type O red blood cell product, equivalent to 2 units, is received from the blood center once a week. Blood products in the ATR which have not been used at our hospital are returned and re-delivered for use at the four collaborating medical institutions. Here, we report outcomes with this project.

After the launch of BR, the discard rate for type O red blood cells at our hospital decreased from 31.3% to 3.7%. The discard rate for blood delivered to the four collaborating medical institutions (BR blood) was 0%. The discard rate for non-BR red cells was 0.12% before BR and 0.9% after BR.

Thus, Amami BR reduced the discard rate for type O red blood cells at our hospital while ensuring safety and reliability of these products. There was no BR blood discarded at any of the four collaborating medical institutions.