Member states are required by WHO to adopt national PBM policies through their respective health organizations and form the appropriate governance systems for this purpose. In this way, available resources can be used in a timely manner to improve the health status of the population and improve outcomes for individual patients. At the same time, overall healthcare spending can be reduced.
Patient Blood Management (PBM) is a patient-centered, systematic, evidence-based approach to improving patient outcomes. This is done through diagnosis and cause-specific treatment of anemia and maintenance of the patient’s own blood. The minimization of blood loss and while at the same time promoting patient safety and self-determination is central to this. PBM reduces the demands on, and therefore the costs of, health care system resources. Transfusion dependency and risks and complications of transfusion are reduced. Nevertheless, there is still a worldwide Discrepancy between the theoretical knowledge and practical implementation of PBM as an overall approach to address the risks of iron deficiency, anemia, blood loss, and coagulation disorders.
This new WHO guideline focuses on the urgent need to close the gap and the steps needed to achieve this goal.
The full WHO guideline:
https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/346655/9789240035744-eng.pdf
