Preoperative blood ordering - Choose wisely!!!

Regular auditing of blood requisition patterns and the introduction of maximum blood-ordering schedule (MSBOS) is important to prevent wastage of precious blood bank resources, suggests a study published in Indian Journal of Surgery on November 24, 2020.

Optimizing the process of preoperative blood ordering can potentially improve operating room efficiency, increase patient safety, and decrease costs. With medical costs increasingly scrutinized and healthcare stakeholders looking for quality metrics, it is important to standardize care and reduce unnecessary expenses. The maximum surgical blood order schedule (MSBOS) was first described in the 1970s involves a list of recommended preoperative blood orders for various types of surgical procedures. Some primary concerns regarding the MSBOS are that the recommendations are often outdated, based on opinion, do not include recently developed surgical procedures, and are not based on institution-specific blood utilization data. Over the past decade, several medical societies have emphasized the need to reduce unnecessary transfusion by following evidence-based guidelines. However, reducing the unnecessary ordering and preparation of blood components remains an area of opportunity to improve care and reduce costs.