The Bloody Truth Blog

Editor’s note (TH):  This month’s guest contributor is Harriet Gammon, who works for The Joint Commission’s Division of Quality Measurement and Research. Ms. Gammon is a nurse who is a passionate advocate of quality patient care, and she has played a central role in moving the Blood Management Performance Measures project from concept towards reality. While there have always been existing regulatory standards for blood utilization oversight and transfusion safety from a variety of agencies (AABB, CAP, TJC, state boards of health), elevation of these standards to performance measures is a “game changer.” The Joint Commission is the acknowledged leader in developing standards for quality and safety for healthcare, and for evaluating performance within healthcare organizations based on these standards. Considering the fact that more than 18,000 health care providers use The Joint Commission standards to guide how they administer care and improve performance, the establishment of Blood Management Performance Measures will shine a bright light on an important area of patient care that has been inadequately addressed in many hospitals. Continue reading →

I recall fondly a button that my early blood management mentor, Dr. Paul Potter, used to wear on his lab coat with that particular saying. Dr. Potter was a staff anesthesiologist at the Naval Medical Center San Diego, and he was an early proponent of all things blood management, especially autotransfusion (commonly referred to as “cell saver” or “cell salvage”). Dr. Potter was introduced to early versions of autotransfusion machines as a young Navy Corpsman during the Vietnam era. The Navy- Marine Corps team has always worked in austere environments, and the ability to retransfuse shed blood in a combat setting was a tremendous advance. Many combat ships and most forward medical aid stations did not have the ability to store blood products, so autotransfusion greatly enhanced the capabilities of the “walking blood bank.” Dr. Potter taught a generation of Navy anesthesiologists, including myself and Dr. Jonathan Waters, the benefits of autotransfusion as a tool in the blood management tool box. It is interesting to note that another Naval Medical Center San Diego alumnus, Dr. Carlos Brown from University Medical Center Brackenridge, just published a case series noting the safety and cost effectiveness of autotransfusion in trauma patients.¹

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