Regional
A hand-in-hand approach toward enhancing quality and safety in the blood transfusion service
Beny Chan
Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Hong Kong
CK Lee
Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service, Hong Kong
The Hong Kong Red Cross Blood Transfusion Service (HKRCBTS) endeavors endlessly to pursue quality and safety of blood products and achieve minimal to zero risk in blood transfusion in Hong Kong. With this commitment in blood and transfusion safety, an effective Quality Management System (QMS) has to be upheld. For the past two decades, our blood centre has been striving for continual improvement through attaining accreditations of various International Standards, which include AABB, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 15189 and ISO/IEC 17043.
With considerable support of top management, our Quality Department takes an active role in implementation, maintenance and improvement of our QMS. We always drive for a mindset in looking for opportunities for improvement and enhancement of the effectiveness of QMS. Meanwhile, both internal and external audits, though extensive, identify potential risks and prevent deviations in practices ranging from blood collection, component preparation, storage and transportation, and laboratory testing.
At the same time, we also monitor the competence of hospitals’ blood bank technical staff in their best practices of blood crossmatching for clinical blood transfusion. By now, our blood service accomplishes an effective QMS by implementing AABB, ISO 9001, ISO 14001, ISO 45001, ISO 15189 and ISO/IEC 17043 standards. All in all, these contribute to our current level of safety in our blood supply.
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A step further to enhance quality and safety through ISO 15189 Accreditation
While blood bank standards are achieved through accreditation with AABB, HKRCBTS goes for ISO 15189 in maintaining the quality and competence of medical laboratory in particular on donor blood group typing and infectious disease testing. Through meeting the requirements of ISO 15189, accuracy of typing and testing results can be secured. Moreover, staff competence could be demonstrated from pre-examination processes, examination processes to the post-examination processes, resulting in high quality of laboratory practices. Over the years, the same kind of ISO 15189 or similar accreditation is also adopted among our hospital blood banks, rendering us a safer clinical transfusion.
Join hand with hospitals in PT Programme and ISO/IEC 17043 Accreditation
Similar to other external quality assurance programmes, we provide territory wide proficiency testing (PT) with our College of Pathologists to drive in driving a safe and quality practice in hospital blood banks. Testing samples are regularly sent to hospitals to assess the staff competence in blood bank testing techniques in red cell crossmatching and antibody identification. Safety of blood transfusion could then be further enhanced by monitoring the performance of hospital blood bank. To keep ourselves as a competent PT provider, we are accredited in ISO/IEC 17043.
In summary, quality and safety in blood supply and transfusion, key concerns among the stakeholders and patients’ care, are assured through implementation and upholding of effective quality management system towards adherence of relevant standards.
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