Patterns of blood utilization by physicians: transfusion of nonoperated anemic patients.

Prior studies have suggested that a high percentage of blood transfusions to hospital patients are unnecessary. If such transfusions can be reduced, more blood would be made available for those patients with legitimate blood requirements. In this study, blood transfusion of 401 nonoperated hospital patients with anemia as the final diagnosis explaining admission and with admission hemoglobin values equal to or greater than 10 gm/dl was analyzed. These patients were drawn from a 300 hospital sample distributed across the United States. Descriptive data showing the extent to which this selected population of patients is transfused with blood must be considered as one measure of unnecessary blood transfusion in this country. Hospital-based programs designed to identify and eliminate unnecessary blood transfusions should be established. The first step in the creation of such programs at the hospital level must be the development of guidelines for blood transfusion derived through the cooperative efforts of hospital physicians who fully understand and accept the rationale for them. Once guidelines for blood transfusion are established in a hospital, transfusion practice need only be measured against them.