Background/Case Studies: A Southeast United States Blood Center that spans over North Carolina (NC), South Carolina, Georgia and Florida support over 350 hospitals. In the Charlotte, NC location, a robust sickle exchange program in one of the area hospitals requires an average of 1000 units a month. While support is offered from other states, local sourcing of units is preferred for a quicker procurement and distribution. Prior to 2024, 30% of the units required for the exchange program were sourced from Florida partner labs. A collaboration between the local reference lab and donor operations was established to target the appropriate donor population. Since sickle cell anemia is largely observed in African American and Black population, phenotypically and genotypically similar blood can be found within the same population.
Study
Design/Methods: A quarterly meeting was established between the management teams from the reference lab and donor operations. Initiatives and data were discussed in the meeting. Initiatives included the creation of a Sickle Cell focus group within the Donor Operations team. The focus group concentrated on setting up drives in zip codes that had a dense population of people who self-identified as African American or Black. Data presented by the reference lab included the number of units that were required from the previous months and where the units where being collected.
Results/Findings: A retrospective analysis of data from 2023 and 2024, noted an increase of collection from NC. While blood was not able to be completely sourced from NC alone, there was an average increase of 10.4%. Collections went from an average of 66% percent sourced from NC to 72%. Table 1 displays the data that was observed. With the exception of September, all other months showed an increase from 2023 vs. 2024 in units being collected locally.
Conclusions: Collaboration through providing relevant data allows for data driven decision making to occur. The outcome is a framework for areas of improvement and a logical deduction on where resources need to be allocated. This initiative has led to an increase of locally sourced units to the area being serviced and a quicker turnaround time in providing units, which ultimately leads to better patient care.
