Background/Case Studies: Our hospital is a 600-bed regional medical center with a level I trauma center. Over 4000 units of platelet (PLT) were transfused in 2022. Platelet (PLT) is the most expensive and one of the most overused blood components. The PLT inventory management has been challenging due to its short shelf life and volatile supply and usage. In 2023, we started patient PLT management to reduce unnecessary PLT transfusions according to AABB PLT transfusion guidelines.
Study
Design/Methods: For more than 2 years the following adjustments have been performed as part of the patient PLT management process.
1: Adjusting daily PLT standing order based on current inventory and PLT requests.
2: Triaging PLT requests according to AABB PLT transfusion guidelines and hospital policy especially when more than one unit of PLT are requested.
3: Using the STAT order services when the PLT inventory became critical.
Results/Findings: Although the patients’ visits have significantly increased since 2019 yearly, our data showed that the total number of PLT ordered from blood suppliers decreased 36.3%, and the number of transfused PLT decreased 28.7% in 2024 compared to 2022. The number of patients transfused with PLT decreased 22% in 2024 compared to 2022 and the number of PLT received per patient decreased 22.3% in 2024 compared to 2019.
Conclusions: physician education, actively monitoring PLT inventory and triaging PLT requests according to AABB guidelines are keys to optimizing PLT usage, resulting in lowering the medical cost and avoiding unnecessary PLT transfusions.
