An out-of-hospital transfusion is a procedure that has become established in the developed world. It is a safe procedure and brings great benefits to the patient’s quality of life.
The benefits of home transfusion are significant in the patient’s quality of life, and the patient does not have to travel to the hospital, wait for an ambulance to arrive, be immobilized, leave his or her comfort zone or have to wait in the emergency room or hospital waiting room.
The above advantages may seem minor, but for many patients they can be very important advantages. This is the case, for example, of those patients in great pain for whom mobilization becomes an ordeal, patients with cognitive impairment who become agitated and disoriented when transferred to the hospital, or depressed patients who, when going to the hospital in the last stages of their lives, incur a significant psychological cost.
These circumstances led our team to perform an out-of-hospital transfusion recently, although on this occasion it was not performed in a patient’s home, but in a nursing home, under medical supervision to optimize the process.
Case analysis
The resident suffers from moderate cognitive impairment, and in recent months presents with chronic gastrointestinal bleeding. On previous occasions, when the anemia increased, he was transferred to a hospital.
The transfer to the hospital involved a waiting time, the transfer itself and sometimes an admission. The result was disorientation and agitation in the patient.
On this occasion, the transfusion was carried out in the nursing home itself, without incident and to the satisfaction of the patient, family and nursing home staff.
This is a safe procedure, endorsed by the National Hemotherapy Commission and the Ministry of Health, which is probably performed less often than desirable.
In this case, avoiding going to the nursing home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic has been a great option. For more information, consult with a Hematology specialist.