What is the Paul Gann Blood Safety Act?

Section 1645 of the California Health and Safety Code states:

1645.    Blood transfusions; informed consent procedures; autologous blood and directed and nondirected homologous blood.

(a)    Whenever there is a reasonable possibility, as determined by a physician and surgeon, that a blood transfusion may be necessary as a result of a medical or surgical procedure, the physician and surgeon, by means of a standard written summary as most recently developed or revised by the State Department of Health Services pursuant to subdivision (e), shall inform the patient of the positive and negative aspects of receiving autologous blood and directed and nondirected homologous blood from volunteers. For purposes of this section, the term 'autologous blood' includes, but is not limited to, predonation, intraoperative autologous transfusion, plasmapheresis, and hemodilution. (amended 1991)

Comment:

Note the phrase "reasonable possibility" in the first line. Not all patients undergoing surgery need to be provided with information about these blood options - only those whose surgery entails a reasonable possibility of needing a blood transfusion.  Some hospital transfusion services define reasonable possibility as those surgeries where a crossmatch is usually ordered.  A recent search of California case law revealed no instances of lawsuits against physicians by patients suffering infectious complications of blood transfusion in which it was alleged the physician failed to comply with the Gann Act.

Written Summary

The standard written summary is available here.