The Hospital Transfusion Committee

BLOOD transfusion can transmit infectious disease, result in potentially lethal acute hemolytic reactions, and cause febrile and allergic reactions in an already ill patient. The dangers of transfusion have led to requirements that hospitals provide peer review of transfusion practice. While excellent guidelines for hospital transfusion committees have been promulgated in the past,¹,²dramatic changes in medical practice, such as in open heart surgery and the intensive treatment of oncological disease, have resulted in changes in blood usage. There has been substantial improvement in patient safety: the reduction of posttransfusion hepatitis has been attributed in large part to the use of volunteer blood and fewer catastrophic transfusion accidents to improved technical and clerical performance in hospital transfusion services and at the bedside. Nevertheless, more can be done to improve the use of blood and its components. Better utilization review and quality assurance practices have developed, partly as a result