General Blood LLC

[BBK710]

Has anyone heard of or is anyone using General Blood LLC?

[David Saikin]

they send me material about themselves periodically.  Have not used them.  The Red Cross is my supplier.  Aside from the O Neg shortage, that kind of continues from the summer, I have no need to search for an alternate supplier.  My concerns are that once I purchase a product from them, if it is not transfused I am going to eat the $$$.  Right now I can transfer my shorter dated units to a larger institution and as an overstock I have an exalted rbc inventory.  Wouldn't want to jeopardize this relationship.  The same thing happened a few years ago when Coral became active in northern New England.  If I really needed to get some short term components I'd go to the NBE.  My take is that General Blood wants to be my main supplier or at least have some type of standing order - I am not certain but I am not pursuing them.

[AMcCord]

We've been contacted by them also with an offer to be an emergency, alternate supplier. Our supplier is also the Red Cross and we have a setup like David's. At this time we don't have any need for another supplier, so have made no contact.

[kate murphy]

We use the NBE as our general supplier and have been for about 15 years.  Moderate sized (550 beds), very active trauma.  General blood did contact us, and analysis showed no savings over using the NBE. 

David, you are correct that once you get the blood, it's yours.  No returns. We're in Boston, so we have many neighbors and we share well.  We do tend to outdate more A's than the norm.  But we still save LOTS - about $1M annually. 

 

Using a broker, like NBE or Gen'l Blood, gives you multiple suppliers.  We find we are less liklely to experience shortages, regional or seasonal.  It does take a little planning and time - your blood & components will come in tomorrow, not today. 

My advice is if you are interested, start small - about 10% of your usage.  It takes a bit of work to get your computer system in sync. You can increase as you like over time.

 

Any you always need a contract with your local supplier for those emergencies or disasters.

 

And I'll definitely plug for the NBE - open to AABB members, great knowledgeable people, always available, they've been doing this for years and know what's going on!

[David Saikin]

Thanks Kate

My operation is very small (24 beds/400-500 rbcs transfused) but I turn over a lot of units as an overstock.  I tend to outdate A's also so I am pretty aggressive with my inventory management - ship 2x/week to my larger institution so that they are happy with the dating. 

[Byfaith]

We have been using them as an alternate supplier for a couple of years now.  We transfuse about 300-400 units a month and outdate <5 per month.  The way we use them is with a small weekly standing order -14units; 6 O Pos, 5 A Pos, 1 B Pos, 1 O Neg and 1 A Neg.  This comes automatically by Fed Ex on a day that the Red Cross (our main supplier) does not normally deliver.  This has worked very well for us, no addtional phone calls or planning needed - and has saved a ton of $$ over the long run!

[Eagle Eye]

what kind of shelf life do you receive on them? 

DO you ever run into problem like hemolyzed units?

[Dansket]

Are these units labeled according to ISBT-128?

[kate murphy]

The NBE and I'm assuming Gen'l Blood use AABB members, FDA licensed facilities - they must be to ship over state lines.

We have never had a problem with a hemoylzed unit, a mislabeled unit, or other quallity issue.

All suppliers that we've dealt with are ISBT and have been for many years.

 

Shelf life varies.  You will know before your blood arrives what the dating is.  Some centers give a discount for units with short dates (5 days or less).

Edited January 13, 2015 by kate murphy