Patient and Unit Identification

The most common cause of an acute intravascular hemolytic transfusion reaction is failure to identify the patient either during specimen collection or immediately prior to initiating transfusion.

Proper identification of the patient at the bedside prior to initiating the transfusion is of paramount importance and is arguably the most important step in ensuring safe transfusion.

The following is an example of the steps required to identify the patient and component prior to transfusion. Prior to connecting the blood product to the blood administration set, the following must be checked at the patient bedside:

• Physician's order to transfuse
• Informed consent documentation (signature)
• Patient's full name, date of birth and medical record number on the
  - patient's ID band
  - product compatibility label
  - requisition or form accompanying the unit from the laboratory, if applicable
  - blood transfusion record
• Information on the component bag with the information on the compatibility label
  - the unit number
  - blood group of the component
  - blood group of the patient

Note: blood groups of the patient and unit are usually identical, but, in special circumstances, compatible but non-identical groups may be issued by the hospital transfusion service.

• Date of expiry on the blood component
• All blood components should be visually inspected prior to administration.

STOP
If any discrepancy is found during the comparison of information on the unit and the patient identification, the transfusion must not be initiated until the discrepancy is resolved.