Editing Blood transfusion (section)

== Frequency of use ==
Globally around 85 million units of red blood cells are transfused in a given year.<ref name=AABB2012 /> The global demand is much higher and there is an unmet need for safe blood for transfusion in many low- and middle-income countries.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Roberts |first1=Nicholas |last2=James |first2=Spencer |last3=Delaney |first3=Meghan |last4=Fitzmaurice |first4=Christina |year=2019 |title=The global need and availability of blood products: a modelling study |url=https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352302619302005 |journal=The Lancet Haematology |language=en |volume=6 |issue=12 |pages=e606–e615 |doi=10.1016/S2352-3026(19)30200-5 |pmid=31631023 |access-date=2024-07-12 |archive-date=2024-06-10 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240610051532/https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S2352302619302005 |url-status=live |url-access=subscription }}</ref>

In the United States, blood transfusions were performed nearly 3 million times during hospitalizations in 2011, making it the most common procedure performed. The rate of hospitalizations with a blood transfusion nearly doubled from 1997, from a rate of 40 stays to 95 stays per 10,000 population. It was the most common procedure performed for patients 45 years of age and older in 2011, and among the top five most common for patients between the ages of 1 and 44 years.<ref name="pmid24354027">{{cite book | vauthors = Pfuntner A, Wier LM, Stocks C | chapter = Most Frequent Procedures Performed in U.S. Hospitals, 2011 | date = October 2013 | title = Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) Statistical Briefs [Internet]. | location = Rockville (MD) | publisher = Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality | id = Statistical Brief #165 | pmid = 24354027 | url = https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK174682/ | access-date = 2023-06-08 | archive-date = 2023-02-20 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20230220095348/https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK174682/ | url-status = live }}</ref>

According to the ''New York Times'': "Changes in medicine have eliminated the need for millions of blood transfusions, which is good news for patients getting procedures like coronary bypasses and other procedures that once required a lot of blood." And, "Blood bank revenue is falling, and the decline may reach $1.5 billion a year this year [2014] from a high of $5 billion in 2008." In 2014, the Red Cross was predicting job losses as high as 12,000 within the next three to five years, roughly a quarter of the total in the industry.<ref name="Transfusions Decline">{{cite news|vauthors=Wald ML|title=Blood Industry Shrinks as Transfusions Decline|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/business/blood-industry-hurt-by-surplus.html|access-date=2014-08-24|work=[[The New York Times]] Newspaper|agency=New York Times|issue=Web Edition|date=2014-08-24|ref=39|archive-date=2014-08-25|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140825125011/http://www.nytimes.com/2014/08/23/business/blood-industry-hurt-by-surplus.html|url-status=live}}</ref> As of 2019, the trend of declining transfusions appeared to be stabilizing, with 10,852,000 RBC units transfused in the United States.<ref name=Jones21>{{cite journal |vauthors=Jones JM, Sapiano MR, Mowla S, Bota D, Berger JJ, Basavaraju SV |title=Has the trend of declining blood transfusions in the United States ended? Findings of the 2019 National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey |journal=Transfusion |volume=61 |issue=Suppl 2 |pages=S1–S10 |date=September 2021 |pmid=34165191 |pmc=8943822 |doi=10.1111/trf.16449 }}</ref>