# Hospital-acquired anemia found in 64% of 108 ICU patients at a southwest Florida hospital

- Published: 2026-11-05 07:22 UTC
- Section: Life & Health › Medicine
- Tags: hospital-acquired anemia, ICU anemia prevalence, hemoglobin decline, intensive care unit stay length, phlebotomy blood loss, iatrogenic blood loss, blood conservation strategies, retrospective record review
- URL: https://realtech.media/news/rt-d1973ce9038e9467244af950_hospital_acquired_anemia/

**A retrospective review of one southwest Florida ICU found a hemoglobin decline of 10% or more in 64% of patients. Their stays were longer on average.**

![Hospital-acquired anemia found in 64% of 108 ICU patients at a southwest Florida hospital](https://sgzwpqqelzmajkcubgkl.supabase.co/storage/v1/object/public/rt-media/2026/11/2a1973003920879a.jpg)
*National Eye Institute, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0*

Researchers reviewed medical records from the intensive care unit of a hospital in southwest Florida and found hospital-acquired anemia (HAA) in 69 of 108 adult patients (64%), according to a study in American Journal of Critical Care [1]. The retrospective, exploratory review used a 6-month convenience sample of 151 patients, of whom 108 met the inclusion criteria [1]. HAA was defined as a decline in hemoglobin of 10% or more from admission to discharge.

## Hemoglobin decline and length of stay

The mean (SD) hemoglobin decline was 20% (8%) in patients with HAA and 4% (2%) in those without it (P < .001) [1]. Stays were longer for the 69 patients with HAA than for the 39 without: mean 5.9 (SD 5.8) days versus 3.3 (3.6) days (P = .005) [1].

A sensitivity analysis excluded 6 outliers, leaving 102 patients. The difference persisted: 5.1 (4.2) days with HAA versus 2.8 (1.7) days without (P < .001) [1].

## Possible causes and limits

The authors name phlebotomy, intravenous fluid resuscitation and medications as contributing factors to HAA in intensive care units [1]. In this study, causality regarding phlebotomy was not directly measured [1]. The work is a retrospective record review in one unit, so it describes a correlation between hemoglobin decline and longer stays.

The authors concluded that the high prevalence of HAA supports implementing blood conservation strategies to improve clinical outcomes and reduce iatrogenic blood loss [1].

## Sources

1. [American Journal of Critical Care](https://doi.org/10.4037/ajcc2026429)
2. [Medical Xpress](https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-11-hospital-anemia-common-icu-patients.html)

---

Source: RealTech, realtech.media — https://realtech.media/news/rt-d1973ce9038e9467244af950_hospital_acquired_anemia/