Main causes and financial impact of whole blood and blood components wastage: a descriptive study, Blood Center of the State Health Department of Rio Grande do Sul, 2018–2022 Objective To identify the main causes and the financial impact of whole blood and blood component wastage in a Brazilian blood center between 2018 and 2022.
Methods Descriptive study using secondary data from the Blood Center of the State Health Department of Rio Grande do Sul. The financial impact was calculated by multiplying the physical data by the reimbursement value for the hemotherapy services under the Brazilian Unified Health System (Sistema Único de Saúde, SUS).
Results Between 2018 and 2022, the blood center produced 169,575 blood units, with an annual mean (M) of 33,915 (standard deviation [SD] 3,096.8), of which 50,947 (30.0%) were discarded. Fresh frozen plasma was the most discarded blood component (62.8%) and had the lowest utilization rate (28.1%). The main causes of discard were volume outside parameters (7,599 units; 14.9%) and excess stock (7,454 units; 14.6%). Reactive results in serological tests accounted for 7.7% of discards (3,948 units). Among the discarded units, 25,784 (50.6%) were attributed to potentially avoidable causes, resulting in an estimated financial impact of BRL 3.5 million (approximately BRL 702,000 per year).
Conclusion Despite high production and utilization rates, discards represented substantial quantitative and financial waste.
Keywords
Hemotherapy Service; Blood Transfusion; Health Economics and Organizations; Health System Financing; Cross-Sectional Studies