Saying an unexpected drop in demand statewide for blood has led to a dip in revenue, Bonfils Blood Center laid off 29 employees Wednesday. Another 23 jobs will be eliminated through attrition.
The reductions amount to about an 8 percent decrease in the center’s staff of 675, according to spokeswoman Jessica Maitland.
At the same time, the state’s main blood supplier will reduce its price July 1 for whole blood, from $235 a unit to $225 a unit, said Thomas C. Puckett, Bonfils chief executive.
Puckett said Bonfils posted a net loss of about $450,000 last year, which he attributed mainly to reduced demand for blood products.
“Right now, there is a reduction in use, but I don’t expect that to be forever,” he said.
Puckett, who became CEO in March, said he believes there are two factors contributing to the reduced demand.
“Baby boomers are aging, but we’re entering that category healthier than people anticipated,” Puckett said.
The other factor is that improved technology and less invasive surgeries mean hospitals use less blood, he said.
In 2005, Bonfils provided 217,000 units of blood – each unit is roughly equal to a pint – and expects to distribute 225,000 this year, Maitland said.
In projections made just a couple of years ago, the center anticipated the need for 300,000 units by 2008, she said.
“That’s clearly not the case now,” Maitland said.
However, she said, “we don’t want the message to get out that we don’t need donations. We do.”
Puckett said Bonfils will decrease what it charges for blood despite losing money in 2005 because blood “is an extraordinary expense for hospitals.”
Denver Health hospital, one of the state’s three main trauma centers, used 6,500 units of blood last year, spokesman Tony Encinias said.
At Bonfils’ existing rate of $235 per unit, that would amount to an annual expense of more than $1.5 million.
Encinias said that blood bank staff could not immediately say whether demand had dropped at Denver Health.
At Swedish Medical Center, the number of whole blood units used between January and May of this year was 2,681 , down about 8 percent, from 2,915, during the same period in 2005, according to spokeswoman Kimberly Langston.
Staff writer Karen Augé can be reached at 303-820-1733 or kauge@denverpost.com.
