Open Journal of Blood Diseases, 2016, 6, 33-43 http://www.scirp.org/journal/ojbd ISSN Online: 2164-3199 ISSN Print: 2164-3180 DOI: 10.4236/ojbd.2016.63006 September 13, 2016 Allogeneic Blood Transfusion: The Cost of Blood Transfusion at a Large Urban Hospital in Zimbabwe Patrick Rutendo Matowa, Hamunyare Ndwabe Pharmaceutical Technology Department, Harare Institute of Technology, Harare, Zimbabwe Abstract Whole blood and its respective blood components are indispensable in today’s medical practice and their use is associated with significant costs. Blood utilization and blood transfusion costs are generally perceived to be increasing at a time when healthcare budgets continue being constricted. This may have far reaching conse- quences, particularly in resource limited settings where healthcare spending is mainly foreign funded. A cost-activity based blood transfusion study was carried out at a large urban hospital in Harare, Zimbabwe on 100 patients prospectively. The inclu- sion criteria took into consideration only pregnant women between the ages 15 and 50 years receiving blood transfusion. Activity based costing was achieved through prospectively following the activities of blood transfusion from the point of collec- tion, storage, matching, pre-transfusion preparations, transfusion and post-transfusion, as well as hospitalisation services costs. The average cost of blood transfusion was found to be $540.71 from the provider’s perspective. This cost was compared with the gross domestic per capita and the poverty datum line of Zimbabwe. A continuous review of transfusion systems to alter the supply chain system into a very economic system was recommended. Keywords Allogeneic, Blood, Transfusion, Cost, Haemorrhage 1. Introduction In the modern day, medical practice, whole blood and the respective blood components have become indispensable products, owing to the various life-saving interventions done in patients [1]. Several predicaments to humanity have landed generations in dif- ferent conditions requiring medical attention, and one such need has been blood How to cite this paper: Matowa, P.R. and Ndwabe, H. (2016) Allogeneic Blood Trans- fusion: The Cost of Blood Transfusion at a Large Urban Hospital in Zimbabwe. Open Journal of Blood Diseases, 6, 33-43. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/ojbd.2016.63006 Received: July 25, 2016 Accepted: September 10, 2016 Published: September 13, 2016 Copyright © 2016 by authors and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access