Contents

6 Implementing, evaluating and maintaining the guidelines

The NBA, in collaboration with the Steering Committee and EWG members, developed a plan to guide appropriate communication on the implementation of this module. The plan identifies target audiences for the module, strategies and tools for effective implementation, communication channels and key messages.

Continued re-evaluation of the guidelines is necessary to reduce variation in practice patterns, support appropriate use of blood component therapy, and reduce inappropriate exposure of patients to blood components.175 A plan was designed to evaluate implementation of the six modules of the guidelines, and to determine:

The results of the evaluation will be used to inform future review of the guidelines. Economic issues were considered when formulating the evidence-based recommendations. The recommendations are likely to reduce product associated expenditure. All recommendations (R1-R8) within this Module either constrain the use of more expensive products (such as blood and blood products and erythropoietin stimulating agents) or replace them with less expensive products (such as iron therapy).

Patient blood management however, requires effective coordination of care. The cost of introducing a coordinated patient blood management approach is anticipated to be offset by savings in reduced product consumption. The NBA, together with the Jurisdictional Blood Committee (JBC) and key stakeholders, is developing a program to facilitate uptake of the PBM guidelines.

The program will include the development of a comprehensive toolkit to support the introduction of patient blood management practices in the clinical setting. The toolkit is being developed with the help of a network of patient blood management practitioners, who will facilitate uptake of the guidelines. The NBA has also funded the development of an online iron deficiency anaemia course within the BloodSafe eLearning Program. Funding has been provided for this course to be marketed to health- care practitioners in the primary and secondary care setting. In addition, the NBA is working with the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Healthcare (ACSQHC) to develop a hospital guide to support the implementation of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards.176 The guide will provide links to the patient blood management guidelines and toolkit, and the BloodSafe eLearning course. These resources provide explicit tools to support uptake of the recommendations in this module.

This module will be reviewed and amended in 2017, unless an issue arises (e.g. new clinical evidence relevant to practice) that triggers a need for an earlier review.

The PBM Guidelines Project Manager at the NBA will convene the group of experts to undertake the review, and will be the person to contact about major issues, events or practice changes.

To provide feedback and inform future reviews of this module, please send any comments on its content or implementation, or on the accompanying materials, to:

Any correspondence will be forwarded to the PBM Guidelines Project Manager for consideration in the next scheduled review.

A list of colleges and societies that have endorsed this module of the guidelines will be available on the NBA website. c

c http://www.blood.gov.au/