Proper disposal and blood management from blood donation departments to hospital clinics

Proper disposal and blood management is a critical part of the blood donation chain as the availability of safe and sufficient blood and blood components is of great importance for the treatment of many diseases. The aim of this study was to identify the most frequent errors that affect the proper management and disposal of blood, from blood donation departments to hospital clinics. A bibliographic search of articles was carried out in the electronic database “PubMed”. Articles in the English language were searched using keywords: blood transfusion, medical errors, human factors, transfusion errors. The literature search showed that the most common errors found in the transfusion chain are specimen labeling errors, incorrect specimens in blood collection tubes (Wrong Blood In Tube - WBIT), incorrect request entries such as patient identification errors, incorrect patient name, incorrect patient registration number and wrong blood group, samples taken by mistake, samples collected from the wrong patient, inappropriate use of blood, incorrect samples regarding blood groups, samples accepted despite not meeting acceptance criteria, ABO incompatible transfusions, improper storage of blood components and data entry errors occurring during sample collection. The present study showed that the safety of blood transfusion practices depends on a series of procedures starting from the decision to administer an appropriate blood component, sample collection, labelling, transport and handling, pre-transfusion screening and finally the administration of relevant blood component to the patient. Keywords: blood transfusion, human factors, medical errors, transfusion errors