National Hemovigilance Pilot Program Launches to Track Adverse Events Associated with Blood T...( Goal is to Enhance Patie...),Health

Goal is to Enhance Patient Safety and Reduce Health Care Costs

BETHESDA, Md., May 7 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Beginning today, nine hospitals will join in a pilot program, contributing data on adverse events associated with blood transfusions. By analyzing the data collected, it will be possible to identify best practices that can be implemented to significantly improve patient safety while reducing overall costs to the health care system.

This pilot hemovigilance program is one of four components comprising the U.S. Biovigilance Network. The U.S. Biovigilance Network is the first and only national collaboration between government and nongovernment agencies designed to confidentially track adverse reactions and incidents associated with blood collection and transfusion as well as tissue, organ and cell therapy transplantation. The Hemovigilance Module - focusing specifically on patients who receive blood and blood components -- is being developed within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC) National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN), a patient safety surveillance system operated by the CDC's Division of Healthcare Quality Promotion.

"The U.S. is the only developed country that does not have an established method to track and monitor adverse events associated with blood transfusion on a national level," said AABB CEO Karen Shoos Lipton, JD. "We are pleased to be partnering with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, CDC and other private organizations to provide a forum that will enable us as a community to evaluate therapeutic protocols and make best practice recommendations to improve patient safety and reduce health care costs."

Though the U.S. blood supply is as safe as it has ever been, this country lacks a coordinated national network to track and monitor adverse events associated with the transfusion of blood and blood componen
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