Exploring Peaks in Hospital Blood Component Utilization: A 10-Year Retrospective Study at a Large Multisite Academic Centre

Peak demand analysis is common in industries such as the energy sector, but can also be applied to the field of transfusion to characterize the nature and timing of peak days in hospital blood utilization. This information can be used to forecast future peak days or to inform hospital emergency preparedness plans. The aims of this study are to characterize peak days in red blood cell (RBC) utilization over the past 10 years at our hospital, and to compare RBC peaks with peaks in platelet, plasma, and cryoprecipitate utilization. This was a retrospective cohort study of RBC, platelet, plasma, and cryoprecipitate transfusions in the inpatient and emergency department setting between May 2009 and April 2019 at a large academic hospital, containing regional trauma and cardiovascular surgery centers. For each blood product, a peak in utilization was defined as a day with a ≥50% increase in the number of units transfused compared to the previous 90-day average. Descriptive and inferential analyses were performed to characterize peak days. There were on average 20,501 RBCs transfused per year and 56 RBCs transfused per day over the 10-year period. A total of 134 peaks in RBC utilization occurred over the study period, with an average of 14 peaks per year. RBC peak days required on average 69% more RBC units compared to nonpeak days (P< .0001). 77% of RBC peaks were caused either solely or in part by surgical bleeding, 34% were caused entirely or in part by trauma, and other causes were infrequent. RBC peaks occurred most often on Fridays and least often on weekends (P< .0001). While there were 134 RBC peaks over the study period, there was a larger number of platelet (n = 292), plasma (n = 467), and cryoprecipitate peaks (n = 579). RBC peak days often coincided with plasma peak days, but less frequently with platelet and cryoprecipitate peaks. More studies are needed to determine whether analysis of peak usage will be of value to hospital blood banks for emergency planning and blood inventory management.