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People can survive weeks without food and days without water. However, blood loss can be fatal in just five minutes. That’s why first responders, trauma centers and others charged with saving lives need 24/7 on-demand access to clean blood and blood banks must be able to supply units for the eight main blood groups as well as the rare blood types.
Yet, blood and plasma demands chronically outpace donations, and acute donor shortages are threatening longer-term health crises. There is expected to be a 75,000-person shortfall among regular donors in Britain this year alone, and while 37% of people in the U.S. are eligible to donate blood, only 10% come forth annually to donate.
I wish this was a temporary issue we could resolve with worldwide blood drives on World Blood Donor Day. However, you and I both know there is no quick fix to dwindling and unstable supply levels. It’s why you clicked to read this post, isn’t it? You wanted to find out what you can do to stop waste and help ensure every accepted blood product remains available for its full life cycle.
So, let’s consider the most common reasons why donated blood may be disposed of before it can be distributed to a patient in need:
Each of these can be avoided if the proper processes and technologies are in place to ensure careful donor screening and close oversight of blood products as they move from the collection point to the lab, then onto the blood bank and eventually the point of transfusion.
For years, I have talked with phlebotomists, clinicians and healthcare administrators about how important it is to properly label a blood vial at the point of care – the physical location where the blood draw occurs. If the label contains the wrong information, a label is placed on the wrong vial, or a label is missing completely, that blood will be rejected by the lab. Part of the donation testing and acceptance process is correlating the blood with the right patient history.
Therefore, every person collecting blood donations should have the following technologies within reach:
This technology combo allows for the patient’s identity to be confirmed, their EHR retrieved, and their donor eligibility verified before any blood is drawn. If the patient passes the initial screening, the phlebotomist can immediately print a set of barcoded labels containing information about the donor and donation. A temperature sensing label can also be generated to start cold chain monitoring.
With all the labels affixed to sample vials and blood bags at the point of donation, in front of the donor, everyone can be confident the blood sample will be accepted by the lab for testing and the full donation can be made available if the sample passes the lab test. The donor and donation have been properly matched.
Once the donation is complete, the phlebotomist can simply scan the barcoded labels again to confirm where each sample was sent and the blood bag units were stored along with the time of those actions. A digital record of each unit can be monitored, and the blood properly managed. This helps ensure no blood is lost in transit, left out on a counter, or left in storage too long.
When lab technicians receive properly labelled blood vials…
If the blood sample is deemed safe and acceptable, then the associated blood bags – all donated units – can be labelled to the global ISBT 128 standard. Both the primary and secondary labels put on the bags should include a unique donation identification number (DIN) imprinted to allow for vein-to-vein traceability. Once the labels are affixed, their barcodes can be scanned, parsed, and verified. If you use barcode scanners with the Zebra Blood Bag Parse+ software loaded on, clinicians will be able to scan all codes at once, including the:
This intake step can be completed quickly and with confidence that all donations entering the national or local blood bank supply have been properly vetted up to that point. As the blood bags continue to move through the supply chain – from the lab to the point of transfusion – this automatic verification process can be easily repeated.
There is always a risk of blood supply loss due to delayed processing or transfers. If a blood bag is left unattended or exposed to temperatures that could compromise safety and quality, someone is going to question the unit’s continued efficacy. And if there’s any doubt about the blood’s viability, it’s quite possible it will be rendered unusable and go to waste. However, the more we can automate traceability, the easier it becomes to prevent mistakes that would make blood unusable. Plus, blood transfusions are considered medical treatments. Anything that compromises the accuracy of lab results or blood identification could increase the risk of ineffective treatment and associated costs to both the patient and healthcare provider.
In other words, we must create secure, trustworthy collection, testing, processing, storage, distribution, and administration systems.
With electronic dispensing and bag collection systems, you can:
You can also confirm each blood bag label matches the patient data embedded in their barcoded wristband using a quick scan at the point of care, in compliance with ISBT vein-to-vein requirement. This initiates a new information chain specific to patient safety monitoring and healthcare management pre- and post-transfusion. All data from the blood bag can be added to the patient EHR with a single scan, and patient vitals and adverse reactions can be reported immediately via a wristband scan correlating the patient to the EHR.
If you’re struggling to justify the cost of technology to decision-makers, remind them that every two seconds, blood is needed by a patient in the U.S. undergoing surgery or cancer treatment or experiencing chronic illness or a traumatic injury. Or that countries like India have reported being short nearly 41 million units in recent years. The blood supply is fragile in both high- and low-income nations.
The only way to ensure blood is available every second of every day for every patient is by ensuring the right blood is matched to the right donor in the first mile and the right patient in the last mile.
For those most inspired by financial impacts, figure every blood sample test costs approximately €100 and every blood bag has a value of €125. If a single donated unit must be removed from the supply at any point of time because there isn’t technology in place to monitor the product’s core temperature or maintain accountability during transfers, that money is lost. And every unit wasted due to mishandling, mislabelling or inadequate oversight increases the risk that clean, safe blood won’t be available for a patient when they need it. Whereas spending €1 per bag in capex and a bit of opex budget on labels enables you to prevent those critical blood – and financial – losses.
Just consider:
So, if you work at a local donation centre, blood bank, hospital or emergency response agency, see if the processes and tools I described above are being used. If they’re not, bring awareness to them to sharing this information with influencers and decision-makers. Donate your time to this cause so that, together, we can help ensure every blood donation received and accepted around the world is properly handled, stored and distributed and that every patient who needs blood can receive it.
And, if you can donate blood, please do.
We must all do our part to strengthen local, national and international blood supplies. We can’t wait on regulators to find a solution.
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Wayne is an A- blood group and has donated 79 times, each donation comprising of one unit of plasma and one unit of platelets.
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To learn more about the current blood shortage or read more facts about how blood is collected, processed and distributed, click here. You can also learn more about how and where to donate blood here.
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