National Blood Authority Australia: Supporting implementation of standard 7 blood and blood products

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The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standards were developed to drive the implementation of safety and quality systems and improve the quality of health care in Australia. Accreditation to the NSQHS Standards commenced for hospitals and day procedure services across Australia from January 2013. Standard 7 is specific to blood and blood products and seeks to ensure that safety and quality strategies are in place relating to the use, management and administration of blood and blood products.

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The National Blood Authority (NBA) undertakes a range of activities to support health service organisations to meet the expectations outlined in Standard 7. Three such activities are outlined below. To find out more about the work of the NBA, go to www.blood.gov.au.

1. 
   National Blood Symposium
   The NBA is co-sponsoring a two day Symposium with Queensland Health and the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care on 11-12 June 2015. The program will showcase examples of excellence across Australia relating to the implementation of NSQHS Standard 7 Blood and Blood Products.For more information on this event go to blood.gov.au/events.
   


2. 
   Inventory Management
   Actions 7.7.1-2 require the review and reduction of risks associated with receipt, storage, collection and transport of blood and blood products and action taken to reduce these risks. Actions 7.8.1-2 require minimisation of wastage of blood and blood products. Improving inventory management practices is one strategy that health service organisations can undertake to support achievement of these actions.The NBA has developed the National Blood and Blood Product Wastage Reduction Strategy which outlines steps to minimise the wastage of blood and blood products. The NBA has also developed a range of tools to support the strategy and assist health service organisations with minimising wastage:
   
   
   
   • Managing Blood and Blood Product Inventory: Guidelines for Australian Health Providers
   
   
   • Stop the Waste! campaign, providing a range of free promotional products such as swing tags for blood bags, posters and wheelie bin pen holders
   
   
   • 10 tips to help manage your blood product inventory
   
   
   
   

In addition to these tools, the NBA can also provide on-theground assistance through the following two programs:

• Blood product management health checks


• The National Inventory Management Framework, a collaboration between the NBA and the Australian  Red Cross Blood Service, which provides guidance on appropriate inventory levels and improvements  to inventory management practices

For more information and to access tools and resources, go to blood.gov.au/inventory-management, or call 13 000 BLOOD (13 000 25663).

1. 
   Patient Blood Management
   Action 7.1.1 of Standard 7 requires health service organisations to have policies, procedures and protocols in place that are consistent with national evidence based guidelines. There is strong evidence suggesting that some transfusions are unnecessary and that patient blood management is important in improving patient outcomes by avoiding unnecessary exposure to blood and blood products. The national Patient Blood Management (PBM) Guidelines are critical to outlining the evidence relating to blood product use, and the recommendations for clinical care. The PBM Guidelines can be found on the NBA website blood.gov.au/pbm-guidelines. A National PBM Collaborative is under development which will focus on anaemia management for patients undergoing elective surgery. The aim of this collaborative is to achieve rapid and sustainable improvements in outcomes for patients through PBM. More information can be found at safetyandquality.gov.au/national-priorities/pbm-collaborative/.

For more information visit blood.gov.au