What's New
The Joint Commission is pleased to announce that support for the testing phase of the Blood Management Performance Measures Project has been provided by unrestricted educational grants from the ITxMSM Blood Science Foundation and ZymoGenetics, Inc. Over 50 hospitals are currently alpha testing the draft measures and will complete their review by October 23, 2009. Following an evaluation and analysis of the results by the technical advisory panel in December, a ‘Call for Volunteers’ for the pilot test will be posted with testing to begin February 2010. Complete details related to the selection process and timeline will be available at that time. The measures for alpha testing include:
DRAFT Candidate Blood Management Measures* – Alpha Testing |
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Transfusion Indication |
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Transfusion Consent |
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Blood Administration Documentation |
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Evaluation Between Multiple Red Blood Cell Transfusions |
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Timely Emergency Transfusions |
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Red Blood Cell Administration |
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Prophylactic Platelet Administration |
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Plasma Administration |
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Preoperative Testing |
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Pre-transfusion Specimen Rejections |
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* Eight of the measure populations would be determined based on medical record documentation of transfusion ICD-9-CM procedure codes (e.g., 99.02, 99.04, etc.) |
Background
February 2007 - Key thought leaders from various organizations convened a stakeholder meeting to discuss whether sufficient evidence existed to develop Blood Management Performance Measures (Phase I). These stakeholders supported proceeding with this project, and suggested that priority areas in blood management be identified utilizing a multi-focused approach of three intersecting activities: blood conservation, appropriate transfusion and a patient-centered focus.
January 2008 - Phase II of the Blood Management performance measures project was initiated to identify, develop, and test a set of standardized measures to help assess blood management in the hospital setting. Partial funding for the project was provided through an unrestricted educational grant from Bayer Healthcare LLC. The Call for Technical Advisory Panel (TAP) Nominations and the Call for Measures were posted from January 10, 2008 through February 2, 2008. The TAP members convened in April 2008 and identified 19 measures addressing key aspects of blood management. The 19 Blood Management Candidate Measure Profiles were posted for public comments from July 17, 2008 through August 19, 2008. After review of the public comments by the TAP in December 2008, the TAP recommended that 12 of the 19 candidate measures be incorporated into a subset of performance measures.
August 2009 - A “Call for Hospitals” to participate in alpha testing was posted from August 24 – September 11, 2009, and over 50 hospitals responded.
Direct project inquires to Harriet Gammon, MSN, RN, CPHQ at hgammon@jointcommission.org.