Quality and safety about hemapheresis practicing: From a self-evaluation of medical practices to a systematic risk management process

Hemapheresis is made up of a set of essential methods for modern medical practices. Applicated to donors, they allow production of labile blood products as well as raw material for plasma products industrial manufacturing; applicated to patients, they are indispensable for the treatment of many pathologies. Conditions for their implementation are very variable according to the teams who have few tools at their disposal to access, standardize and make reliable their activity. Therefore, an approach has been initiated by the Institut National de la Transfusion Sanguine and the Hemapheresis French Society to develop a guide which primary goal is to help teams evaluate themselves in different areas of their responsabilities. The generalization of the evaluation of professional practices in all activities and specialities required recently by the third iteration of the certification procedure of health institutions and a new law about French health system reinforce us in our approach. Finally, hemapheresis is not whithout risks, neither for donors nor for patients, which now encourages us to analyze sharply our procedures, to identify risk situations and develop means of prevention. This second step is already a current news for us. (C) 2010 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.