Lloydminster Hospital sits near the border of Saskatchewan and Alberta, serving patients from both provinces. In 2025, this community hospital received its Using Blood Wisely designation for meeting national transfusion appropriateness benchmarks.

Manager of Laboratory Medicine for Lloydminster and Area Heather Brandt, Lloydminster Hospital MLT Supervisor Jennifer Perkins, and Dr. Oksana Prokopchuk-Gauk, Clinical Lead of Transfusion Medicine at the Saskatchewan Health Authority, share that this achievement reflects months-long collaboration and the dedication of a small, but committed team.

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At Lloydminster Hospital, small changes in daily routines have added up to measurable improvements in patient care. The team’s work with Using Blood Wisely began by reviewing how transfusions were ordered and managed. With support from Dr. Oksana Prokopchuk-Gauk, a hospital-wide education campaign was launched, materials were added to SaskBlood.ca, and the benchmarks were adopted as requirements by Saskatchewan’s Transfusion Medicine Discipline Committee. Heather and Jennifer also integrated the program’s resources into the onboarding process for medical laboratory technologists, ensuring staff across the hospital understood the changes and their purpose.

“Providing standardized resources has helped to reassure clinicians that we’re somehow not just trying to be different in our practice,” says Dr. Prokopchuk-Gauk. “We are trying to meet best practice standards.”

Lloydminster Hospital also introduced transfusion screening to help meet benchmarks. Every transfusion order is now reviewed by a medical laboratory technologist before processing. If the order does not meet criteria, the technologist consults with the ordering clinician. This process has brought unexpected benefits, with Dr. Prokopchuk-Gauk sharing that the technologists are more aware of abnormalities, blood stewardship has become a greater focus in daily practice, and the hospital has been able to reduce its overall blood inventory.

“I know that makes a difference in the country, because those blood products are now available for another site,” says Jennifer. “It shows that a small community can make a big impact on national blood usage.”

Since achieving their designation, the Lloydminster team is continuing efforts to improve resource stewardship. This includes reducing daily blood order testing and implementing a provincial pre-printed order set that aligns with Using Blood Wisely guidelines. In addition to blood conservation efforts, the hospital hopes to incorporate more Choosing Wisely recommendations across departments and continue to share knowledge within the entire Lloydminster team.

For staff, the recognition has brought visibility to the important role of the laboratory. “Much of what we do is behind the scenes,” says Heather. “Having national recognition shows that our work supports the larger system.”

The Lloydminster team continues to explore ways to strengthen stewardship and improve patient care, showing how practical changes and collaboration can have an impact well beyond a single hospital.