Quality is usually discussed as the basic principle for the health care organization’s development. While referring to the operations of facilities specializing in transfusion medicine, the aspect of quality is highly important, as it is stated in the article on the issue of implementing quality systems in health care organizations.
The article shows that the AABB-accredited facilities need efficient quality systems in order to guarantee positive outcomes, and moreover, any focus on AABB available resources is essential to improve quality.
From this point, quality is the central idea while discussing the operations in facilities that are associated with administering the cellar therapy products.
Also, the authors claim that the improvement of facility outcomes is possible mostly when the holistic approach is followed because of the necessity to promote quality for all departments and regulate the work with donors and counseling.
Several examples of using quality systems in successful facilities are presented in the article.
The first identified principle of quality management is associated with the idea that everyone is involved in improving the quality in a facility.
Lifeline Blood Services in Jackson, TN, is an example of a facility where the implementation of the quality assurance system involving donor and technical services is associated with communicating the importance of the system to everyone.
Thus, the success of the implementation depended on the explanation of the necessity of quality regulations and standard operating procedures as well as on following training and performance improvement procedures for all employees. As a result, the quality became the matter for everyone in the facility.
The other principle is the focus on determining the unified quality principles for all the parts or facilities of the health care system.
When all the parts of the Memorial Hermann Health System started to use the same quality control indicators, transfusion services became improved, and the greater cohesion was achieved to contribute to the facility’s success.
The similar approach was used in Northside Hospital in Atlanta and Blood and Marrow Transplant Program. The coordinators of the program made quality an issue for regular meeting discussions in order to identify challenges, improve testing, analyze cases, and guarantee the error prevention.
As a result of the active communication, the quality regulation, coordination, and error management were improved, and the focus on excellence allowed developing new approaches for the successful collaboration within the program.
The implementation of quality improvement systems is a global practice, and the article provides the example of addressing the matter of quality in Poland and Brazil.
Thus, in response to the increased workload and formulation of more requirements to performance, the Polish Stem Cell Bank in Warsaw updated procedures and the work with documents to save time for training and meet not only quality but also financial requirements.
Also, the specialist of Albert Einstein Hospital located in Sao Paolo also pointed on increases in quality requirements that could be difficult to follow, but the results of such procedures are important to improve the outcomes for facilities.
From this point, it is essential to state that the article aims to demonstrate the advantages of using the quality systems in facilities working in the field of transfusion medicine when they are discussed in the context of the AABB accreditation and independently.
The provided cases are effective to illustrate how changes in the quality management can lead to positive changes in the operations and outcomes.