Centralized Transfusion Services

An SBB student in a distance Blood Bank Technology program is currently doing research as part of his SBB program requirements. He is researching Centralized Transfusion Services (CTS's) and whether the benefits of increased efficiency (in terms of savings on reagent and FTE's) experienced by larger CTS's would also be experienced by smaller, more rural hospital networks if they to switch to a centralized model. He wonders what volume of testing would be needed to see these types of benefits? The hospital system he works for includes 5 hospitals in central Oregon (400-500 beds), and they are looking into whether centralizing would be beneficial to them, at least in terms of finances.

As a way to collect data, he would like to survey other hospital networks that are currently employing a centralized transfusion service delivery model. He is familiar with larger networks such as Puget Sound, Pittsburgh and Florida, but he is interested in small to medium sized networks that used a centralized system. He has had a hard time locating other networks in the U.S. and is hoping that colleagues might be able to inform him of such networks through this discussion.

Specifically, he is hoping to find 3-4 small to medium sized networks (large networks are OK, too) to whom he could email his survey, which would include simple questions such as number of hospital beds, number of FTE's, number of blood bank tests performed annually, and number of RBC's transfused. This information would be kept anonymous in the research paper.

Colleagues who are willing to share this information will be provided with an email address at which the survey can be requested.

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