SusQI Case Study: Reducing the consumption of unnecessary blood samples and idle equipment

SusQI project completed as part of Gloucestershire Hospital NHS FT Green Team Competition 2022 by the Haematology team.

Team members:

• Gary Parfitt (Associate Practitioner)
• Lucy Campbell (Biomedical Scientist)
• Edward Birt (Medical Lab Assistant)
• Holly Morgan (Medical Lab Assistant)
• Tahlima Hussain (Medical Lab Assistant)

Project Aim:

1. Reduce low clinical value samples sent to the haematology lab from the emergency department (ED) by targeting; a. Unused ‘spare’ citrate samples b. Inappropriate and ‘just in case’ sodium citrate samples c. Avoidable (low clinical value) samples
2. Reduce energy usage of electrical equipment in haematology, immunology and blood transfusion at GRH and CGH.

Results: 

Environmental Sustainability: 

Project 1: 678 kgCO2e / year

Project 2: 62,920 kgCO2e / year

Economic Sustainability: 

Project 1: £846 / year 

Project 2: £52,924 / year 

Clinical and Social Sustainability:

• Improve turnaround time of sample results supporting team to meet 1 hour targets
• ED will receive results from high priority tests faster making clinical decision making more timely and efficient.
• Risk of repeat blood testing if spare citrate not taken at time of initial testing. Based on only 15% of spare samples being used for tests, we assume risk is low.

Click here for more information on the Green Team Competition (including organisation impact reports).