Transfusion committees

Health services that provide transfusion should have a Blood Management or Transfusion Committee (BMC) to guide safe, high‑quality transfusion practice. This committee plays a key role in overseeing governance, quality assurance and continuous improvement across all transfusion activities. 

In some settings, the responsibilities of a BMC may be integrated into an existing quality assurance, clinical governance or risk management committee, depending on local needs and resources. 

For smaller hospitals or facilities with limited staff, participation in a regional, district or broader clinical governance committee is appropriate. What’s essential is that every service involved in transfusion has access to an appropriate forum to address transfusion quality, safety and practice issues. 

Primary roles of the BMC

• Provide an active multidisciplinary forum to facilitate communication between those involved with transfusion.
• Recommend or perform practice audits.
• Monitor transfusion practice compared to institutional, national or international benchmarks.
• Provide education to effect change in practice. 

Membership of the BMC

Institutional representatives

• Clinicians: surgery, medicine, paediatrics, haematology, oncology, orthopaedics, O&G, anaesthesia, emergency, ICU
• Executive management
• Clinical risk management/Quality assurance
• Blood bank scientist/s
• Transfusion practitioner where available: this maybe transfusion nurse or trainer, designated nurse or professional with transfusion responsibilities
• Nursing 

External representatives

• Australian Red Cross Lifeblood (Lifeblood) transfusion medicine member
• Invited or ad hoc members
• Health department
• Consumer involvement, where appropriate 

BMC Activities

• Report and follow up adverse transfusion reactions.
• Disseminate and implement national policies and guidelines.
• Develop and review institutional transfusion and blood management policies and systems (e.g. patient and sample identification).
• Identify staff training requirements in clinical and laboratory transfusion practice.
• Develop local educational and training materials as required.
• Collect and monitor blood ordering practices, use and wastage statistics, errors and incidents.
• Formulate contingency plans for emergencies, blood shortages and critical bleeding events
• Communicate with internal and external bodies about quality assurance matters
• Develop and review maximum surgical blood ordering schedule (MSBOS)
• Investigate the use and assess the impact of information technology (and other technologies) on and to improve transfusion safety 

Updated January 2026