Allogeneic Blood Transfusion: The Cost of Blood Transfusion at a Large Urban Hospital in Zimbabwe

Whole blood and its respective blood components are indispensable in today’s medical practice and their use is associated with significant costs. Blood utilization and blood transfusion costs are generally perceived to be increasing at a time when healthcare budgets continue being constricted. This may have far reaching consequences, particularly in resource limited settings where healthcare spending is mainly foreign funded. A cost-activity based blood transfusion study was carried out at a large urban hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe on 100 patients prospectively. The inclusion criteria took into consideration only pregnant women between the ages 15 and 50 years receiving blood transfusion. Activity based costing was achieved through prospectively following the activities of blood transfusion from the point of collection, storage, matching, pre-transfusion preparations, transfusion and post-transfusion, as well as hospitalisation services costs. The average cost of blood transfusion was found to be $540.71 from the provider’s perspective. This cost was compared with the gross domestic per capita and the poverty datum line of Zimbabwe. A continuous review of transfusion systems to alter the supply chain system into a very economic system was recommended.