The CTR can capture over 100 data elements for blood products and transfusion events and many business rules are enforced to ensure a high level of data quality. The CTR provides accurate data to support utilization management, quality management, performance measurement, forecasting and decision making for the PBCO and its partners and stakeholders.

 

 

The PBCO, in partnership with the regional health authority transfusion services, takes all reasonable measures to ensure that personal patient information is treated in a confidential manner, is only available to authorized staff for purpose for which it is collected, and is stored securely.

 

As a public body, the PBCO must comply with the Freedom of Inforamtion and Protection of Privacy Act in terms of collection, use, retention, disclosure and security of personal information.  For more information, please call 604.806.8840.

 

Data Sources

The CTR captures data from many sources using several mechanisms:

•Over 90 institutions and clinics that utilize blood products in B.C. and the Yukon submit their disposition data to the CTR. The institutions can submit their disposition data files electronically or manually:

•Computerized: Electronic hospital data files are submitted to a secure ftp site. An automatic process imports the files. An email is generated to notify the user of the status of the file, how many records were imported, how many records are at error, etc.

•Non-Computerized: Manual ledgers are sent to the CTR and then manually keyed into files appropriate for entry into the CTR

•CBS Head Office in Ottawa provides a fractionated product data file. The file contains product information regarding lot numbers, expiry dates and dose information.

•Screening physicians enter approval status (approved or denied) using an on-line tool for IVIG recipients for selected medical specialities.

•Surveillance cases are entered manually through an on-line interface.

Data Integrity

For recipient data, 38 business rules have been created to ensure data integrity for patient identifier fields. Business rules have been created that automatically merge patients and other business rules have been created to prompt the end user to assess the patient identifiers and provide the end-user with an option to merge or not merge. Some challenges of merging recipients are:

•Married name changes

•Patient first name and middle name put in first name field

•Date of birth format not followed and results in incorrect birth date

•Babies with Mom’s PHN

•Merging newborns (with Mom’s PHN) with their non-newborn selves (their own PHN)

For product records, there are over 100 business rules to ensure a high level of product data integrity. Some examples of the application of business rules:

•Lot numbers submitted by an institution are referenced to lot numbers provided by CBS to ensure accurate lot numbers.

•The CTR has the ability to reference blood product records across institutions and thereby identify discrepant product disposition statuses. An example of this is when an institution records a unit as being transfused to a patient when shipped en route with a patient, but the unit is actually discarded at the receiving hospital. The CTR identifies this situation and resolves the discrepancy by contacting the hospitals.

Data Elements

Over 100 data elements can be captured in the CTR.  Briefly, these data elements include:

•Facility: identification of the facility reporting the transfusion;

•Patient: identification, address information, alternate blood group transfusion assessment, age of recipient at time of transfusion, reason for transfusion (currently for IVIG only).

•Blood Products: identification of all blood components and fractionated blood products used (whether transfused, destroyed or redistributed to another hospital), with identifiers to trace back to the supplier of the product.

•Blood Component: Blood groups, age of product at time of transfusion, autologous, product modifications. Fields in the data warehouse aggregate divided units into whole units to enable reporting of either whole units or aliquots

•Fractionated Product: Dose, unit of measure, manufacturer and expiry date

•Product Request status (Approved / Denied/ Under Review – currently for IVIG only)

•Surveillance reporting. Adverse event numerator and denominator data is available for both components and fractionated products.

CTR Reports

In excess of 100 Crystal Reports have been developed to enable reporting of CTR data. Reports have been created in the following categories:

•Look back / Trace back

•Redistribution (RBC and Factor Products)

•Fractionated Product Utilization

•Age of RBC at Time of Transfusion

•Recipient Age Category

•Component Utilization Reports

•Approval Framework (currently for IVIG)

•Surveillance

•Operational