Blood banks are declaring fewer critical shortages these days and in some cases cutting staff in response to dwindling demand for blood — the result of fewer elective surgeries being performed and medical advances that curb bleeding in the operating room.
The nation’s blood-collection system has undergone a dramatic change from a decade ago, when agencies that oversee the blood supply worried whether they could keep up with the needs of an aging population.
Now blood banks are making fewer but more targeted appeals for donations and reducing the size of their operations. Experts say that doesn’t mean there’s a blood glut.
“I hope that people don’t read that news and say, ‘Oh, there’s not a need for me.’ Because people need blood every single day,” said Barb Kain, spokeswoman for Blood Systems in Scottsdale, Ariz., which provides blood to hospitals in 18 states.
Type O Negative blood is the most sought-after because it can be transfused into any patient. Experts say there’s also strong demand for platelets, Type AB plasma, which is used in trauma and burn victims and cancer patients, and red blood cells, which are given to accident and gunshot victims.
Blood centers have shifted “from a collect-as-much-as-you-can mentality to a collect-to-need mentality,” said Dr. Darrell Triulzi, medical director for the Institute for Transfusion Medicine in Pittsburgh and a former president of AABB, formerly known as the American Association of Blood Banks. “They started collecting only what they needed. That’s new to the industry. We’re still learning how to do that well.”
Job cuts have been a part of the process.
The Indiana Blood Center announced in June that it would eliminate 45 positions in a restructuring that also involved reducing its mobile operations. The Community Blood Center of the Ozarks in Springfield, Mo., announced in March that it was cutting staff by nearly 18 percent. Blood centers in Florida, West Virginia and Connecticut have taken similar steps.
The blood-collection system began changing with the Great Recession, when Americans who had lost their jobs and health insurance put off non-critical procedures.
The need for blood is still falling even as the economy recovers. Demand dropped by 8.2 percent from 2008 to 2011 and continues to drop, according to a report by the AABB.
Contributing to the decline are blood-management programs, which include collecting blood lost during an operation and returning it to the patient. Advances in surgical methods, including techniques that use small “keyhole” incisions, have also curbed the need.
