Hemovigilance system implementation at the University Hospital of Uruguay

Abstract

Introduction: hemovigilance is a tool used to improve the quality of blood transfusion, and it mainly focuses on patients’ safety.
Objective: to identify and learn about the characteristics and frequency of transfusion related negative effects and to devise a hemovigilance system to be applied in our hospital.
Method: we conducted an observational, descriptive, longitudinal and prospective study, and all patients who received hemocomponents at the university hospital in a two year period (2014-2015) were followed up during 12 months. All reactions related to transfusion, adverse incidents and near misses were recorded.
Results: 58 transfusion related adverse reactions were recorded, what represented 8,3‰ of the transfused hemocomponents.
Conclusion: the detailed analysis of adverse reactions showed procedures to improve results may be adopted and allowed for the implementation of corrective and preventive measures. The hemovigilance system used is simple in terms of its structure and easy to apply.