Blood Shortage Worsens; Hospitals Asked to Postpone Non-Emergency Surgeries for Type-O Patients.

Assignment Editors/Health/Medical Writers

PHILADELPHIA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 14, 2000

The regional blood supply, which has been fragile all summer, is in crisis.

"I have recommended that type-O surgeries that can be postponed, be rescheduled to help ensure that emergency needs for blood can be met," said Scott Murphy, MD, chief medical officer of the Penn-Jersey Region of the American Red Cross Blood Services. "The Red Cross cannot provide O-positive red cells to meet all urgent transfusion needs.

"Red Cross physicians continue to evaluate requests for type-O blood and this week have had to decline an increasing number of urgent needs," Murphy said. "This already bad situation continues to deteriorate."

While supplies of type-O blood are at crisis levels, all blood types are urgently needed. Eligible donors are asked to call the American Red Cross at 800/GIVE LIFE (800/448-3543) to schedule an appointment to donate blood. Many additional donors are needed through September and into October in order to rebuild the area's blood supply.

Hospital inventories of type O-positive blood remain at a system-wide deficit of nearly 1500 units, or 43 percent of desired inventory. A Red Cross physician continues to review every request for type-O blood. The reserve supply of blood at the Red Cross is at - crisis levels. This morning, just 128 O-positive units of blood were available for more than 100 area hospitals. There is no cushion.

Hospitals have felt the pinch and are alarmed by dangerously low levels:

-- Two cardiac surgeries on the Friday before Labor Day were cancelled at one
area hospital. Medical staff did not think enough type-O blood was available to
support the procedures because another patient there required significant
transfusion support.

-- A Level I Trauma Center in the region has voiced concern that supplies of
blood are not adequate and could lead to a loss of life. They feel car accident
victims, who can each need as much as 100 units of blood, could be at
significant risk.

-- Another facility is concerned about the supply of O-positive blood. There
were just six units of O-positive blood on their shelves heading into last
weekend, 30 units less than normal.

-- A different hospital recently began a day with just six units of O-positive
blood on the shelf, 54 fewer than their optimal number.

-- Another hospital blood bank reports that they have alerted surgical staff
that blood is not guaranteed to be available to support procedures. Physicians
have been asked to decide on a case-by-case basis whether or not they can
operate safely.

-- The blood shortage has put many hospitals in a situation where they must
wait for shipments of blood from the Red Cross before they can tend to patient
care, creating a dangerous situation.

In the Greater Delaware Valley and New Jersey, one in three units of blood transfused locally is donated by a volunteer at a Red Cross blood center in another part of the country. As the need for blood has steadily increased, these regular shipments have been routinely cut.

As a result, hospitals in the area have had a shortage of group O-positive blood, the most common and most used blood type, for months.

The demand for blood is increasing more quickly than donations. In our area, demand this summer was six percent higher than the previous year.

The region has suffered from a chronic blood shortage since early June. Critically low supplies were declared to be at emergency levels again on August 28. Appeals for blood donations this summer have generated additional blood donations. While each donation is a lifesaving gift, the community blood supply has not been rebuilt and more donors are needed.

Most healthy people who are at least 17 years old and who weigh 110 pounds or more are eligible to give blood. In New Jersey, seventeen-year-olds must bring an American Red Cross parental consent form signed by their parent or legal guardian to the blood drive. Federal regulations require donors to wait 56 days between donations. Please bring some form of ID.

The American Red Cross delivers blood around the clock, and provides on-call medical and laboratory support to physicians and their patients in approximately 100 hospitals in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey thanks to the generosity of healthy volunteer blood donors.