Design Guidelines for Blood Centreswill serve as a tool for authorities responsible for developing building centers to house blood transfusion services. These guidelines were prepared to assist countries in developing appropriate, purpose-built facilities for blood services. They may be used to guide the design of new buildings, to direct the renovation of existing facilities or even to improve work patterns by considering the layout in established facilities.
This book is a one-stop resource on all the critical aspects of planning and designing hospitals, one of the most complex healthcare projects to undertake. A well-planned and designed hospital should control infection rate, provide safety to patients, caregivers and visitors, help improve patients' recovery and have scope for future expansion and change. Reinforcing these basic principles, guidance on such effective planning and designing is the key focus. Readers are offered insights into eliminating shortcomings at every stage of setting up a hospital which may not be feasible to rectify later on through alterations. Chapters from 1 to 12 of the book provide exhaustive notes on initial planning, such as detailed project reports, feasibility studies, and area calculation. Chapters 13 to 27 include designing and layout of all the essential departments/units such as OPD, emergency, intermediate care, diagnostics, operating rooms, and intensive care units. Chapters 28 to 37 cover designing support services like sterilization department, pharmacy, medical gas pipeline, kitchen, laundry, medical record, and mortuary. Chapters 38 to 48 take the readers through planning other services like air-conditioning and ventilation, fire safety, extra low voltage, mechanical, electrical, and plumbing services. Chapter 49 is for the planning of medical equipment. A particular chapter on "Green" hospital designing is included. This book is a single essential tabletop reference for hospital consultants, medical and hospital administrators, hospital designers, architecture students, and hospital promoters.
This guidance document has been produced by the World Health Organization (WHO) to assist blood services in the development of national plans to respond to any disaster, major incident or emergency that threatens sufficiency or safety of the blood supply. Such situations can be caused by natural forces, by factors influenced by humans or directly caused by humans. This document is intended to guide the national blood service through the process of planning how to respond in a timely, controlled and appropriate way to emergencies. In the preparation of the document, WHO has tried to include the elements that blood services or providers might need to consider, providing some background on the reasons for their inclusion and guidance on different response options that may be available. The consequences of an emergency may include interruption of blood supply due to a shortage of blood donors, or to a disrupted supply of critical materials and equipment used in blood collection, component preparation and laboratory testing, resulting in reduced availability of blood and blood components. Although the demand for transfusion may decrease in some situations, transfusions continue to be necessary for clinical emergencies and for those patients reliant on long-term transfusion support. In contrast, some emergencies, for instance those resulting in multiple casualties, could lead to a rapid surge in demand for blood over a short time. The challenge is to maintain essential transfusion services as well as responding to the emergency. Preparedness, including business continuity planning, is essential for blood services to mitigate the impact of emergencies. Preparation should be underpinned by locally sensitive risk assessment using relevant data at the local or country level. However, it is not possible to predict the nature of every situation that could impact on the blood supply, and it is therefore expected that blood services will review the elements in this document as well as assessing their own situation, needs, capabilities and resources, along with any additional relevant country-specific factors, in the development of their own response plans. Planning should consider the concurrence and combinations of events and the response should be proportionate and coordinated with others. The aim is to maintain critical services and prepare for recovery. Staff training and support is key to resilience. It is acknowledged that as well as affecting the sufficiency and safety of blood supply, major incidents in countries undertaking transplantation may threaten the safety and sufficiency of the supply of other products of human origin, such as cells, tissues and organs. Increasingly, blood services are taking overall national responsibility for transplantation in their capacity as the organization responsible for the collection, processing, storage and supply of cells, tissues and organs. This approach is both sensible and appropriate, as the overall donor selection and screening processes are the same or very similar. This guidance document can therefore also be used to assist those bodies responsible for the provision of cells, tissues and organs to prepare for emergencies. Resilience to disasters and emergencies requires a commitment to the blood supply and transfusion system as an integral part of the health care system.
The WHO guidelines on assessing donor suitability for blood donation have been developed to assist blood transfusion services in countries that are establishing or strengthening national systems for the selection of blood donors. They are designed for use by policy makers in national blood programmes in ministries of health, national advisory bodies such as national blood commissions or councils, and blood transfusion services.
Phlebotomy uses large, hollow needles to remove blood specimens for lab testing or blood donation. Each step in the process carries risks - both for patients and health workers. Patients may be bruised. Health workers may receive needle-stick injuries. Both can become infected with bloodborne organisms such as hepatitis B, HIV, syphilis or malaria. Moreover, each step affects the quality of the specimen and the diagnosis. A contaminated specimen will produce a misdiagnosis. Clerical errors can prove fatal. The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks.
"Blood transfusion is a life-saving intervention that has an essential role in patient management within health care systems. All Member States of the World Health Organization (WHO) endorsed World Health Assembly resolutions WHA28.72 (1) in 1975 and WHA58.13 (2) in 2005. These commit them to the provision of adequate supplies of safe blood and blood products that are accessible to all patients who require transfusion either to save their lives or promote their continuing or improving health." --Preface.
The new WHO guidelines provide recommended steps for safe phlebotomy and reiterate accepted principles for drawing, collecting blood and transporting blood to laboratories/blood banks. The main areas covered by the toolkit are: 1. bloodborne pathogens transmitted through unsafe injection practices;2. relevant elements of standard precautions and associated barrier protection;3. best injection and related infection prevention and control practices;4. occupational risk factors and their management.
