Delayed transfusions may result in patient morbidity and mortality, but no standards for timely transfusion have been developed. Information technology tools could be implemented to identify gaps in provision of blood and to recognize areas of improvement. Herein, we propose that the time to initiate a blood transfusion after an informative laboratory test could feasibly be used by the transfusion medicine service as a metric to monitor for transfusion delays. Trends and outlier events could be further investigated and used to make decisions and implement protocols to improve patient care.

Upon manuscript submission, all authors completed the author disclosure form. Disclosures and/or potential conflicts of interest: All support for the present manuscript: None declared; Grants or contracts from any entity: None declared; Royalties or licenses: None declared; Consulting Fees: None declared; Payment or honorarium for lectures, presentations, speakers bureaus, manuscript writing or educational events: None declared; Payment for expert testimony: None declared; Support for attending meetings and/or travel: None declared; Patents planned, issued or pending: None declared; Participation on a Data Safety Monitoring Board or Advisory Board: None declared; Leadership or fiduciary role in other board, society, committee or advocacy group, paid or unpaid: None declared; Stock or stock option ownership: Eric Gehrie (Refactor Health); Receipt of equipment, materials, drugs, medical writing, gifts or other services: None declared; Other financial or non-financial interests: None declared.

This study did not receive any funding.

I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained.

Yes

The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below:

The study was conducted under Children′s National Hospital Institutional Review Board approved study protocol (Pro00010083–Mod00000781 ″Effectiveness of blood product transfusion and associated adverse events in neonatal & pediatric patients″).

I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals.

Yes

I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance).

Yes

I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines and uploaded the relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material as supplementary files, if applicable.

Yes

All data produced in the present study are available in de-identified fashion upon reasonable request to the authors.