Tasked to work for hospital-wide safety guidelines
Irfan Tramboo
Srinagar, Dec 11: Sher-e-Kashmir Institute of Medical Sciences (SKIMS), Soura, has established a Hospital Transfusion Committee (HTC), tasked with developing hospital-wide transfusion safety guidelines and implementing related national guidelines.
As per the underlined roles and responsibilities in the directives, the HTC will ensure the governance of administrative issues related to transfusion, serve as the liaison with regulatory authorities, and reach consensus on submissions and inspection outcomes.
The 10-member HTC includes doctors from various departments, with the Medical Superintendent designated as the Chairman and the Head of the Department of Blood Transfusion and Immunohematology designated as the Convenor.
Through the Committee, whose formation has been sanctioned by the Director of SKIMS, the sharing of transfusion-related information, including updates to national guidance, audit results, and examples of best practices with users, will also be ensured.
Furthermore, it will work towards monitoring the implementation of national guidelines in the hospital, taking appropriate action to address hindrances to their effective implementation, and ensuring appropriate blood utilization and adherence to best practice standards.
The Committee is also tasked to define blood transfusion policies for the hospital in accordance with national guidelines and establishing systems for their implementation. It will also review and ensure the minimization of blood component loss due to time expiration and wastage.
Members are entrusted with developing a mechanism for the safe collection and disposal of used empty blood/component bags and transfusion sets from clinical areas, and will ensure the implementation of Patient Blood Management (PBM) initiatives, such as reviewing transfusion alternatives and making necessary recommendations for their use.
The HTC, given a wider role as per the directives, will further work towards reducing the number of inappropriate dose transfusion incidents. The necessary work will be executed through the Committee towards introducing hospital-wide transfusion safety guidelines, including the use of wristbands with barcodes, etc.
The committee will also empanel blood centers to supply blood/blood components to hospitals and will maintain communication with blood and blood components providers to ensure the availability of required blood and blood components.
Regarding the training of healthcare personnel, the details state that the committee will also conduct training and proficiency evaluations for all healthcare personnel in the hospital involved in the blood transfusion process.
The HTC will carry out monitoring, reporting, and investigation of adverse events and near misses related to transfusion, using these examples to enhance learning as well as ensuring a cycle of clinical audits to assess transfusion practice, safety, and compliance with national requirements.
The expert committee shall to meet at least once every three months and assess whether recall and other quality manual processes are functioning as intended.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
