Ever wonder what happens to the data you supply on questionnaires for the National Blood Collection and Utilization Surveys? Are you puzzled by the statistical manipulations that result in the numbers you wish to cite in a paper or presentation? Do you need a benchmarking tool to evaluate your organization’s products and services? These and similar issues were addressed in the session on “The National Blood Survey” (9136-LMT), presented jointly by Jerry Holmberg, PhD, MT(ASCP)SBB, from the Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS), and Barbee Whitaker, PhD, from AABB. 

How It All Works

The survey, conducted by AABB under contract with the federal agency, is intended to provide critical data for the transfusion medicine community. Conducted every other year or so, the survey is distributed to blood centers, hospitals and cord blood banks as a paper questionnaire, with a Web survey follow-up for critical information. The most recent questionnaire, distributed in August 2007, requested data from 2006.

Although the questions on the survey remain fairly consistent to enable trends over time to be analyzed, new topics are introduced to keep the resulting data current. For example, the most recent survey contained new questions on infectious disease markers, therapeutic apheresis, donor adverse reactions and hemovigilance.

Response to the 2007 survey increased over previous efforts, with 91.4% of blood centers responding, 59.9% of hospitals and 51.9% of cord blood banks. In order to avoid the imbalances inherent in responses from hospitals with different surgical volumes, statistical tools such as “weighting” are applied to the raw data.

A Comprehensive Perspective

The survey addresses blood collected and processed in the United States by component (red cells, platelets, plasma, granulocytes, cryoprecipitate). The analysis of data considers autologous donors, first-time donors, repeat donors, whole blood collections, apheresis collections, losses due to infectious disease testing and other aspects.

Blood transfusion data included in the survey involve component modification (irradiation, leukocyte reduction), outdate rates, transfusion rates by surgical volume, individual component usage, adverse events, blood-related surgery delays and several other topics of interest. Separate sections are devoted to component costs as well as cellular therapy products collected, processed and infused.

Current Issues and Trends

Perhaps the most interesting feature of the survey is the identification of current issues and trends. Many of the graphs and charts in the survey report show current information in comparison with historical data. Among the trends revealed in the most recent survey are the following:

·                      Significant decrease in autologous blood use.

·                      Significant increase in RBC apheresis collections.

·                      Greater-than-expected decrease in collection of whole-blood-derived platelets.

·                      Significant increase in HPC products collected.

·                      Slight widening of the margin of available blood supply.

At this writing, the 2007 survey report is in the final stages of federal approval. Once that process is completed, the report is posted for free on the DHHS and AABB Web sites. Those interested in a bound hard copy can find ordering information on the AABB Web site, in the Bookstore.