Safety
Haemovigilance
"Haemovigilance is required to identify and prevent occurrence or recurrence of transfusion-related unwanted events, to increase the safety, efficacy and efficiency of blood transfusion, covering all activities of the transfusion chain from donor to recipient." 1
In Australia, the National Blood Authority (NBA) is responsible for the reporting and governance frameworks for the National Haemovigilance Program. It reports on serious transfusion-related adverse events occurring in public and private hospitals. NSW has contributed data to the National Haemovigilance Program since 2008.
Clinical incident management and reporting
The requirements for facility or LHD level notification, analysis and reporting of adverse events related to the use of blood products is outlined in:
- Blood Management Policy PD2018_042
- National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (2nd edition)
- Incident Management - PD2020_047
Patient safety data and information
NSW Health data on haemovigilance is collated from the Incident Information Management System (or RiskMan at SVHN). The Blood Watch team collates and analyses this data annually, identifying risks and opportunities to improve care at the system level.
Information on clinical incident reporting and management in NSW can be found on the CEC's Incident Management page.