Establishing an equitable group O D- red blood cell inventory in hospitals.

摘要

Group O D- RBCs (O- RBC) are transfused to group O D-patients and also to patients with other blood groups for a variety of reasons. The additional uses make it a difficult blood component to keep in a blood center's inventory and to have available for hospitals.One way to improve O- RBC availability is to have it equitably distributed among a blood center's hospitals. Factors that should affect a hospital's minimum O- RBC inventory level are the hospital's annual RBC transfusion activity, special programs such as trauma and neonatal intensive care, distance to the supply center, being a children's hospital since children's hospitals have a relative mean O- usage that is 9% higher than the American Red Cross national average, and the ethnicity of the patient population since the D- phenotype varies in different ethnic populations. A hospital's experience with O- blood shortages also affects its minimum O- RBC inventory level.The blood center services 4.4 million people and 44 hospitals in the Detroit metropolitan community and transfuses approximately 250,000 RBCs per year.