Florida’s Blood Centers: There Will Be Blood - Health Executive - RedCoat Publishing - Inside Healthcare

There aren’t too many businesses out there that don’t control their own raw materials. But blood centers are one of them. With no miracle elixir on the horizon able to replace the need for an adequate blood supply, organizations like Florida’s Blood Centers (FBC) will always find themselves searching high and low for donors. With healthcare changing its focus from diagnostics to prevention, and the American culture in a state of flux, finding and expanding the blood donor pool isn’t getting any easier.

Anne Chinoda, President and CEO

“Twenty years ago, people gave blood because they knew it saved lives and was the right thing to do. It was weaved into the fabric of American lifestyle as a part of social capitalism,” said Anne Chinoda, CEO and president. “As that has decayed, we recognize it is more and more expensive to recruit a new donor base.”

FBC is the largest provider of blood services in Florida and the fourth largest in the country. During the last few years, the organization experienced extreme levels of growth. It built five new facilities in the last two years, overhauled its IT infrastructure, and engaged in various community collaborations at a rate unseen before in its history. FBC spent $15 million on facilities and equipment, improving its infrastructure to collect twice as much blood.

Growth tools
One major reason for FBC’s evolution is a change in Florida’s economy. During Governor Jeb Bush’s administration, the state created The Florida Innovation Incentive Fund. It is a $330 million fund replenished annually and designed to encourage economic development in healthcare and bioscience. The fund is one of the resources established to diversify the state’s economy, placing life sciences alongside the state’s other primary industries of agriculture and tourism. Throughout the state, Florida is developing a high-tech life science cluster, in which FBC plays an integral role. This means FBC’s blood supply won’t only be used for patients in crisis but also for scientific research.

With the expansion of its footprint came a need to invest in its technology infrastructure. Due to its heavy regulation by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), blood centers can’t simply buy software systems off the shelf, instead needing a custom built IT system. As such, there are a limited number of vendors available. First, the organization invested in the development of all of its non-regulated software systems, including quality assurance documentation, donor information and appointments, multiple scheduling, online training and education, and quality control. Those are ready to interface with the new Oracle-based mainframe platform, which will go live in 2009.

Safety is the first concern in blood banking. Following the HIV break out in the late 1980s, the public, the FDA, and the Congress all refused to accept anything less than a zero risk environment. Ensuring that remains no easy task, but FBC continues to set the standard for safety and testing, which others emulate.

The organization understands the issues regarding shelf life of red blood cells and platelets and makes sure its hospitals have a couple days of working inventory. In the event of a disaster, it has procedures in place to ensure rapid response to any of the providers it serves. Another reason for the growth in its footprint is due to its eight distribution centers around the state. No hospital should expect to wait for more than an hour or so for emergency supplies, making FBC the best possible provider.

FBC also doesn’t outsource most of its testing procedures, and the organization runs two series of tests per day. This 12-hour test and release cycle allows more blood to come in to FBC labs, get tested to ensure safety, and find its way to the hospitals.

Establishing relevance
Going forward, the challenge for FBC and the whole blood supply industry is to expand its pool of donors and help people understand the personal health benefits of donating blood and its contribution to the community’s quality of life. People don’t see donating blood as a civic responsibility in the same way they used to, so marketing is an essential function.

Although the blood centers have been running sophisticated IT systems in operations, the industry has trailed in its business intelligence systems and marketing solutions. It is now critical to understand the demographics and mindset of both current and prospective donors.

“We have to be ahead of the curve and understand what is going on inside the minds of all Americans because we deal with every demographic, especially here in Florida. To be successful, we have to understand the wide array of cultural differences, particularly among Hispanics, Asians, and African Americans,” said Chinoda.

She also noted FBC is working hard to recruit and retain the best possible workforce. With the establishment of an education plan with a local community college, it has essentially created an “FBC college education” that staff can receive while on the job. It develops professionals prepared to move up the corporate ladder. In addition, a new “train-the-trainer” program expands educational opportunities throughout FBC’s statewide operations.

As for the life science cluster, Chinoda is on the BioFlorida board of directors and has traveled around the world to understand what healthcare clusters are doing well and how institutions can collaborate on diagnostics and prevention. FBC is looking to be a part of research efforts to work with other organizations to improve public health.

But the biggest concern for Chinoda is delivering the right blood at the right time to the right person. She must build the donor base of the future while helping people understand blood supply is a part of prevention of disease and not only used in times of crisis. She must also determine people’s motivating factors for donating blood and is overseeing a comprehensive market research study looking at those questions.

“If the social capitalism we had in the past dissipates to nothing, what will happen to our blood supply? It would be interesting to study whether variables like pandemics, economics, war, and changes in public policy affect donation levels,” Chinoda said. “But for now, we are basically dependant on the good will of human beings and on more unknown variables than known.”

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