Audit of the red cell units supply of a busy hospital blood bank in Nigeria.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Blood bank audit embraces all procedures from blood procurement to the long -term consequences of transfusion which helps to identify opportunities for improvement. We have therefore looked at red cell transfusion in our hospital to identify areas that will require improvement. METHOD Data was collected retrospectively from the hard copy record of the blood bank for a period of one month. RESULTS Request was made for 1210 red cell units; crossmatch was made for 64% of the request. All units crossmatched were issued, of these 4.15% were returned unutilized. 5.1% were issued as uncrossmatched. The Obstetrics/Gynaecology unit recorded the highest blood usage and the medical unit the least. The use of blood by the emergency and paediatric were the same. The crossmatch:transfusion ratio for the hospital was 0.9:1. This study has shown that the crossmatch and transfusion rates are almost equal and only a small percentage was returned unused. CONCLUSION This showed that there is inadequate supply of blood. There is a need to assess the reason for transfusion and establishing a blood transfusion advisory committee by the hospital. This will ensure interaction and collaboration between blood suppliers and users to improve the quality of transfusion practice. The new policy establishing a national transfusion service will also improve the transfusion service but emphasis has to be put on donor recruitment and donor care.