Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of hemovigilance among doctors in a Sri Lankan tertiary care center

BACKGROUND: Hemovigilance systems are considered a core component of quality control in transfusion practice. Clinicians play a pivotal role in the detection, reporting, investigation, and management of transfusion incidents. It has been demonstrated that improving the health-care workers’ knowledge of hemovigilance invariably increases incident reporting rates. The objective of this study was to determine the knowledge, attitudes, and practice of hemovigilance among medical officers working at Colombo South Teaching Hospital. MATERIALS AND METHODOLOGY: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted using a self-administered prevalidated questionnaire with open- and closed-ended questions. All the doctors who gave informed written consent were included in the study. RESULTS: One hundred and eighty-five medical officers participated in the study, and the response rate was 82.2%. The knowledge of the participants was not satisfactory, especially with regard to the scope (11.9%) and the nonpunitive nature of the hemovigilance system (32.2%). Time constraints were the main factor that discouraged incident reporting (57.6%), and many (58.8%) stated that reporting should be made easy to increase the notification rates. Doctors who had previously been educated on transfusion adverse events were found to have better knowledge. A particularly lower number of respondents had read the national guidelines (2.8%) and annual hemovigilance reports (1.7%). CONCLUSION: Knowledge among the participants was unsatisfactory, especially concerning the scope and the nonpunitive voluntary framework of the hemovigilance system. Doctors should be made aware of the hemovigilance-related documentation and should have more access to continuous medical education programs.