Transfusion practice in the private hospital.

Recognition that human immunodeficiency virus could be transmitted by blood transfusion has brought the practice of transfusion medicine into the public consciousness with great force. Patients are informed about the dangers of receiving a blood transfusion and are expressing their preferences about the source of the blood they may receive and the conditions under which they may receive it. Government, blood bank organizations, and physicians are responding to the public demand for a safe blood supply. As a result, profound changes are underway in hospital blood donor services, transfusion service inventory controls, and patient transfusion practices. A much more bureaucratic and complex system has emerged. Providing help to patients and physicians as they struggle to cope with the vicissitudes of this confusing new transfusion medicine is the role of the medical director of the hospital blood bank.