Compliance of documentation by health-care professionals: Evaluation of transfusion practices at bedside

Abstract

Background and Objectives: In transfusion practices, noncompliance with standard guidelines may lead to cause adverse events. Bedside assessment during and posttransfusion is equally important as overall transfusion-related precautions. The current study was conducted to observe the practices of health-care professionals related to transfusion documentation through a structured questionnaire. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted from 2018 to 2019 after ethical approval. A questionnaire structured for the documentation of transfusion process at bedside was filled having information of the name of the product receiver, date, time, name of patient with a medical identification number, ABO group match with the product, name of two health-care staff who started transfusion, and start and stop timings of transfusion. Initials of staff and patient vital record at onset, 15 min, and the end of transfusion were also recorded. Analysis was performed by using SPSS 23.0. Results: A total of 500 transfusion episodes were analyzed, out of which 115 (23%) forms were available in the patient files and 88 (76%) forms were filled. The overall compliance rate was 18%. The highest compliance was observed in the documentation of the name of nursing staff at the start of transfusion 79 (90%) and noncompliance was observed in the documentation of duty doctor initials at the completion 85 (96%). Conclusions: We observed scarce practice regarding transfusion-related documentation by health-care staff at the bedside. Stringent steps should be taken to avoid morbidities and mortalities. Training and education in this context is the need of time.

Keywords

• attitudes and practice
• bedside testing
• blood transfusion
• hemovigilance
• knowledge