The Providence Holy Cross blood management program is now one of the nation’s best for patients in need of blood transfusions, according to a recent survey and certification by The Joint Commission.

Providence Holy Cross is one of just three hospitals in the nation to rate so efficiently. The two other medical centers are The Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore and Georgetown University Hospital in Washington, D.C., according to a news release.

“For many years, Providence Holy Cross has been known as ‘the little hospital that could’ because our care teams continually raise the bar for quality and innovative health care, frequently resulting in national recognition,” said Dr. Bernard Klein, the hospital’s chief executive. “To be included among two such renowned medical centers for excellence is an enormous honor.”

The survey team utilized a system designed to carefully weigh the necessity of transfusions and to conserve blood supplies and found that the blood management program needed no area for improvement, Providence officials said.

Hospital staff have worked together for two years to develop the program that recognized the necessity and diminished the risks of transfusions, fine-tuned protocols, researched alternatives and created meticulous records to show progress, the news release said.

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Dr. Robert Raggi, chief medical officer at Providence, helped lead the development of the program and is sharing its practices with the 50 hospitals that comprise the Providence St. Joseph Health system to expand blood management practices.

“Blood transfusions are very complex procedures. Careful and deliberate review is critical to improving outcomes for certain patients and also for ensuring we are conserving donated blood, a very precious resource,” said Raggi.

The Joint Commission awarded Providence Holy Cross its Level II Patient Blood Management Certificate, the news release added.

The blood management program is designed to help hospitals further their goals to continuously provide safe, high quality care, treatment and services, according to Mark G. Pelletier, the commission’s chief operating officer.  

The certification process is intended to identify opportunities to enhance clinical and quality operations and patient outcomes, Pelletier added.  

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