Time and Motion Study of Blood Delivery System in a Regional Blood Transfusion Centre in West Bengal: A Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: Delay in turnaround time (TAT) of blood delivery for transfusion is an important administrative problem in hospitals. Time and motion study for a definite root cause analysis (RCA) is valuable to identify the root causes of problems in the operating events. Aim: The study was undertaken to observe TAT and the causes of increased TAT of blood delivery for transfusion to the admitted patients on an emergency basis at hospital and to formulate plans to rectify them. Materials and Methods: This descriptive longitudinal study was performed on 50 randomly selected admitted patients requiring emergency blood transfusion during a period of six months and were not assisted by volunteers. Another 50 control patients were incorporated, who were accompanied by volunteers who assisted them in getting the blood. RCA of the delays in TAT was done. Time intervals of TAT in the two groups were compared by 2 tailed t-tests for equality of means. The data was analysed using Epi-info 7 and SPSS version 16. A ‘p-value’ of less than 0.05 was taken to be statistically significant. Results: All the time intervals were high in the study group in comparison to the control group and in most cases they were statistically significant (p< 0.05) within a 95% confidence interval of the difference. The maximum time needed in both groups was in D7 (mean 89.70 and 83.50 minutes in cases and controls respectively) i.e. the interval between the relative reaching regional blood transfusion centre with blood sample and donor (T7) and patient’s blood sample being processed for grouping and cross matching (T8). Conclusion: The study revealed that certain easy to implement administrative steps would help to reduce the TAT significantly

Keywords

• blood delivery system
• delay
• root cause analysis