Dear Transfusion Service Partner,
The rapidly escalating COVID-19 case numbers across the country and throughout our organization has drastically impeded our ability to supply blood to your hospital. With increasing donor cancellation rates and hundreds of staff impacted by the virus, the American Red Cross is experiencing significant disruptions throughout our supply chain. The situation is expected to worsen in the weeks ahead. As such, the Red Cross must take necessary action to manage a severely constrained blood supply. Today, we are announcing two changes to our red blood cell (RBC) ordering process, both of which will become effective January 17th.
Daily Threshold for Groups A and B
Group A and B RBCs will be added to the Daily Threshold inventory management process. This means that your hospital will be assigned a proportional supply of the available Group A and B RBC inventory and be subject to ordering limits in the same way that Group O inventory has been since December. Along with Group O, your hospital’s Group A and B daily limit will post in Connect starting this Thursday.
Medical Release Requests
The Red Cross is suspending the Medical Release process so that we may allocate this reserved inventory proactively. Your Red Cross regional medical director will no longer have access to a discretionary reserve of RBCs and will have no ability to divert additional inventory to your hospital. The Medical Release reserve was always intended for urgent, lifesaving transfusions; however, over the past month, hundreds of requests were received daily, most for inventory supplementation rather than unforeseen bleeding emergencies.
After careful consideration, we have determined that distributing all available inventory upfront to each hospital and allowing your hospital to assess your critical clinical needs based on your available supply was a more effective and viable solution. Your assigned Daily Threshold for Group A, B and O will now reflect the total available supply for your hospital. Regardless of urgency or clinical situation, all orders will be reduced to the assigned daily limit. The Daily Threshold will not be overridden as the inventory reserve has been disseminated.
Alert your hospital leadership to these important changes so that you can adjust your daily operations to conform to your Daily Threshold volumes. This must include managing trauma patients or unexpected bleeding events in the operating room. In critical situations, continue to coordinate the transfer inventory amongst hospitals in your community as in the past. Hospitals throughout the country have implemented crisis standards of care protocols in response to the industry’s blood shortage; if not already in place, please consider a similar action.
Staffing throughout our supply chain has reached critical levels and impacted our routine operations. Many sites may be required to temporarily reduce hours of operation to best utilize limited resources. Delays in answering phones, processing orders, delivering shipments, and picking up samples are unavoidable at this time and should be anticipated. In consideration of our staff and yours, please plan accordingly for longer than usual response times including STAT orders and use Connect to view order status information whenever possible to avoid extended hold times.
Despite these overwhelming challenges, the Red Cross has deployed the maximum effort to stabilize operations and restore our supply. Today we have launched a national media appeal alerting existing and potential donors to this blood crisis. We are cognizant that limited resources will delay our return to normal; however, maintaining public outreach and donor engagement is essential to our recovery.
Your partnership is needed and appreciated now more than ever.
Sincerely,
Pampee P. Young, M.D., Ph.D.
Chief Medical Officer