Development of a blood inventory management dashboard for inventory and usage monitoring in response to the COVID-19 pandemic

ABSTRACT

Background/Case Studies One of the essential tasks of operating a transfusion medicine service is the management of blood inventory. In response to the uncertainty in blood use and blood supply brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, a Blood Inventory Management Dashboard (BIMD) for the University Hospitals Healthcare System (UHHS) was developed and implemented. Study Design/Methods: A multidisciplinary working group consisting of blood bank medical directors, laboratory managers, and information technology specialists were involved in the design of the BIMD. Hospital IT resources were prioritized to develop the dashboard. The dashboard informatics design pulls data from our blood bank information system (HCLL version 2015, SP1, WellSky® (pka Mediware®) (Overland Park, KS)). Reports are then generated using Microsoft SQL ServerData Tools 2015 (Redmond, WA). Data elements include available blood components, total number of uncrossmatched red blood cells (RBC) divided based on ABO group and Rh type, patients who are high-volume users, and number of blood components issued and used. Inventory was trended over 7 and 30 days and graphically displayed. As a refinement, the dashboard was modified to display color coded inventory per level status (adequate, guarded, and critical). The dashboard display is configured in a tabular and graphical format via Microsoft Excel 2016 (Redmond, WA). Results/Findings: Beginning on March 22, 2020, the dashboard has been automatically distributed prior to 8 AM daily via email to the health system Incident Command Center, Blood Bank medical directors, and other organizational leadership. It immediately became a crucial tool for planning and served as a mechanism to identify the need to move blood inventory throughout the system over the course of the pandemic and permitting identification of high volume users for interventions of ordering additional inventory based on anticipated needs. The number of blood component units are now tracked across all the hospitals within our system. The breakout by ABO and Rh type is a novel and valuable feature of the dashboard and presents valuable summary data that are not available in the laboratory information system. Conclusions: The development of an automated dashboard enables monitoring blood inventory levels across a multiple-hospital health system. The dashboard provides data broken down by ABO and Rh type, data not readily retrievable in the laboratory information system. The dashboard provides tracking of blood product utilization, and the ability to respond dynamically to blood needs throughout the system over the course of the pandemic. The BIMD has proven to be a key tool to inform decision making by organizational and blood bank leadership in the COVID-19 pandemic and in developing future contingency plans in managing blood bank inventory during unforeseen emergencies.