Role of National Accreditation Board of Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) core indicators monitoring in quality and safety of blood transfusion

CONTEXT: Certain quality indicators are mandatory in the maintenance and improvement of quality in blood transfusion. Monitoring of such indicators should be done regularly and deficiencies are to be corrected for effective blood transfusion services. AIMS: To study the usefulness of monitoring of the National Accreditation Board for Hospitals and Healthcare Providers (NABH) core indicators in blood transfusion and in the maintenance of hemovigilance. SETTINGS AND DESIGN: Hemovigilance is a quality process to improve quality and increase the safety of blood transfusion. It covers and surveys all activities of the blood transfusion chain from donors to recipients. Core indicators’ monitoring is a part of the hemovigilance process. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A 2-year retrospective study was conducted in a blood storage unit of a NABH accredited tertiary care hospital of a metropolitan city. Four NABH core indicators in blood transfusion were observed and monitored by the clinical and blood storage unit staff of different levels. RESULTS: It was observed that there was an improvement in quality by core indicators monitoring with decreased wastage of blood and blood components, decreased average turnaround time for issue of blood and blood components, and lesser number of transfusion reactions. CONCLUSION: This study demonstrated that monitoring of NABH core indicators results in the enhancement of quality and safety in blood transfusion services, reducing the incidence of transfusion reactions.