Practice - Transfusion Safety

The UHN Blood Transfusion Services continue to ensure we are meeting high quality and safety in transfusion safety standards. We need to provide ongoing evidence of this to the Canadian regulatory assessors, as well as international transfusion safety organizations such as the College of American Pathologists (CAP) and the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Nursing is a vital part of the transfusion safety loop and actively participates in accreditation assessments. Some of the ongoing processes nurses will see in clinical areas are as follows:

Blood product administration audits (internal and external), in which nurses will be observed and asked questions about positive patient identification, as well as administering blood and transfusion adverse events.
Mandatory annual completion of transfusion safety competency, which is completed online.
Patient chart audits to track MD compliance with clinically appropriate use of blood products and informed consent, as well as clinical staff documentation of transfusion, including vital signs.
Monthly inservices at all 3 sites by the CNS, Patient Safety/ Transfusion Services.
24/7 access to resources via the hospital intranet site.

UHN is committed to high standards of quality and patient safety in all aspects of blood transfusion practice.