Blood management: a model of excellence.

With goals of improving patient safety, decreasing length of patient stay, and reducing overall costs, Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, WA, developed a series of new blood management guidelines. We aimed to develop standard procedures and protocols for blood transfusions and assess all adverse outcomes while seeking process improvements to decrease the risk of transfusion. Since 2005, overall red blood cell use has significantly decreased across all three of our hospital campuses. Improvements in cardiac services and elective orthopedic surgeries have been particularly significant. This manuscript details the changes we instituted and the important considerations for other facilities considering a similar change in protocol.