RESULTS: All major process steps, staff, and consumables
to provide red blood cell (RBC) transfusions to
surgical patients, including usage frequencies, and
direct and indirect overhead costs contributed to per-
RBC-unit costs between $522 and $1183 (mean,
$761 $294). These exceed previously reported estimates
and were 3.2- to 4.8-fold higher than blood
product acquisition costs. Annual expenditures on blood
and transfusion-related activities, limited to surgical
patients, ranged from $1.62 to $6.03 million per hospital
and were largely related to the transfusion rate