Optimizing O red blood cell concentrate usage in the emergency department in the era of patient blood management

Emergency transfusion may require the availability of O-negative red blood cell concentrates without pre-transfusion testing. At the Cliniques Universitaires Saint-Luc, the emergency department was used to having access to two decentralized O-negative red blood cell concentrates. This study aims to analyze the consumption of O-negative red blood cell concentrates in emergency situations both before and after the implementation of a novel strategy aiming at optimizing stocks. This strategy provides a combined allocation of one unit of O-positive red blood cell concentrate and one unit of O-negative red blood cell concentrate decentralized in the emergency department and reserve the transfusion of the negative unit only to under 45-year-old women and under 20-year-old men.