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Should hospitals collect blood components?: no
1American Red Cross, New England Region, Dedham, MA, USA.
Over the last decade, the costs of blood procurement have increased as a result of regulatory pressure and scientific progress in understanding transfusion-transmitted disease. At the same time, hospitals are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs. Hospital blood banks are evaluating different strategies, including in-house or "out-sourced" blood collection, as a means of reducing collections. These decisions, however, should be made on assessments of the total cost of a safe and reliable blood supply: recruitment, collection, donor management, testing, manufacturing/processing, quality control, inventory management, quality assurance, regulatory, overhead and availability. If all of these costs are considered, it is unlikely that cost reduction can be achieved through hospital collections.
Over the last decade, the costs of blood procurement have increased as a result of regulatory pressure and scientific progress in understanding transfusion-transmitted disease. At the same time, hospitals are under tremendous pressure to reduce costs. Hospital blood banks are evaluating different strategies, including in-house or "out-sourced" blood collection, as a means of reducing collections. These decisions, however, should be made on assessments of the total cost of a safe and reliable blood supply: recruitment, collection, donor management, testing, manufacturing/processing, quality control, inventory management, quality assurance, regulatory, overhead and availability. If all of these costs are considered, it is unlikely that cost reduction can be achieved through hospital collections.