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smdara

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In my career, I have always worked with community blood centers and had the good fortune to have them located locally.  I think it's possible that my administration will ask us to consider switching to ARC.  I would love to hear from ARC users about their experience and/or if anyone can contrast a community blood center vs. ARC relationship.  My two biggest concerns are the availability of reference lab services and inventory management.  We send a fair amount of reference work to our blood center since they are nearby.  That saves us from having to keep those reagents on hand and maintain staff competency for low volume, high complexity procedures.  From an inventory standpoint, we get daily deliveries and have easy access to stat needs.  Additionally, the blood center helps a lot with short dates and rotating those out to their higher volume customers, so we don't have to find someone to take the units.  Also, we receive apheresis platelets exclusively, as well as pre-pooled cryo.  For context, we're a medium sized standalone acute care hospital with active ER, OR, OB, and oncology populations.  Thanks for any feedback you can give!

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I have used the Red Cross, NY Blood Center, and done my own donors during my career.  Downside is that in all 3 instances there are shortages - usually O Negs but it can be any type and for no particular reason.  I've had the Red Cross right around the corner but my current supplier is 90 miles away (3 hr transport time unless the police bring product - the 2 hr).  I rarely use their reference lab but when I have it is there and it is good - esp if I need a fast TAT.  You let them know the acuity of the situation and they respond accordingly.  the Red Cross usually will not take returns on short dates (or at all really)  but may have a system for you to transfer these to larger institutions.  Delivery schedules/logistics. . . ?

These are question that you will need to discuss with the Red Cross in your area before you make a decision.

I have been mostly pleased with the service I receive from the ARC in Northern New England.

 

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Sounds like your facility may be similar in scope of service to mine. We are also a stand alone. We've used the ARC for many many years and we are satisfied customers. For the last 7? 10? years the ARC has been very focused on customer satisfaction which means that we have a customer representative who is our go-to person for any problems or needs (and frankly our problems are few). I doubt this is unique to our region. Our blood supply is very reliable - we have it when we need it, understanding of course that there are going to be times of some form of shortage. One major advantage of the ARC is that they draw a lot of product all over the country and if your region is running short due to issues that affect blood drives, like blizzards, flooding, etc., they've can shift product from other regions that have what is needed - we don't have to worry about it.  And if your community blood center runs short of something, its very possible that the ARC or some other large supplier is boosting their supply by agreement.

We are 150 miles away from them, but they have regular courier runs, drivers and volunteers to make sure we get what we need 7 days a week. We haven't called the State Patrol in quite a few years (I shouldn't have said that out loud :no:) We rotate stock on a weekly basis with 3 weeks outdate remaining. We do sometimes receive shorter outdate red cells, but that's because we are one of the larger users in our region and our usage pattern suggests that we will transfuse those units. If not and we outdate something, they credit us. Pheresis platelets shouldn't be an issue - I 'think' that pheresis is all the ARC does now. Pre-pooled cryo and plasma, never frozen are also available. We find the reference lab to be quick and reliable. I also know that I can call them and talk through something I'm working on and get good advice. Another perc - they provide free formal continuing ed to customers.

Definitely ask for a visit from the person who would be your customer representative if you were to become a customer. Make a list of questions and throw 'em out there. 

 

 

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We are a different reagion from AMcCord but have had the same experience as her.  I would definitely recommend you talk with them and see what they can do for you.  We don't have the luxury of a closer community blood center.  If we did we might shop around just to see what they could do for us, but I have no real complaints about Red Cross.

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  • 2 weeks later...

ALL of the advice here is very good, and I would take ALL of it, most importantly the part about getting to know your regional accounts manager (ARC"ese" for customer representative, customer service rep, etc.). And also that about being very specific with your questions, as per your needs.  

One nugget I would add is, as a former ARC customer and ARC medical director (ie, both sides of the coin), I would caution that experience with ARC can vary greatly region by region, as may be the case with any large, national company with multiple, regional stores, centers, etc. 

From my time on the hospital end, the reference lab piece was VERY important, as both hospitals where I worked saw a lot of complex patients with crossmatching challenges.  It might be a good idea to discuss this piece by conference call with the accounts manager and the IRL (Immunohematology Reference Lab) supervisor, to more specifically address whether your needs and TAT requirements can be met. Due to staffing, demand for services and other issues, IRLs may or may not have on site coverage after hours and weekends, and on call staff would need to be called in for these cases.  There is also the possibility of writing a contract with ARC that does not include IRL services if you are not convinced your needs can be met.

BTW, the "inside" slang for a former ARC employee is "FARCE".  So there--it's out! 

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  • 10 months later...
On 3/15/2016 at 1:35 PM, smdara said:

In my career, I have always worked with community blood centers and had the good fortune to have them located locally.  I think it's possible that my administration will ask us to consider switching to ARC.  I would love to hear from ARC users about their experience and/or if anyone can contrast a community blood center vs. ARC relationship.  My two biggest concerns are the availability of reference lab services and inventory management.  We send a fair amount of reference work to our blood center since they are nearby.  That saves us from having to keep those reagents on hand and maintain staff competency for low volume, high complexity procedures.  From an inventory standpoint, we get daily deliveries and have easy access to stat needs.  Additionally, the blood center helps a lot with short dates and rotating those out to their higher volume customers, so we don't have to find someone to take the units.  Also, we receive apheresis platelets exclusively, as well as pre-pooled cryo.  For context, we're a medium sized standalone acute care hospital with active ER, OR, OB, and oncology populations.  Thanks for any feedback you can give!

I'm curious as to why your administration would have you switch?

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It sounds like a money issue.  Everybody's tightening their belts and the blood line item is usually quite high, so admin and purchasing think it can be treated like any other consumable.

My advice is to have your community center also involved and submit a proposal.  You might be surprised that the community center may match or beat ARC pricing.  Or suggest a 50/50 split - that way you have 2 suppliers and less likely to see shortages.

My experience with ARC is not as glowing as the others here.  They were never able to consistently supply us to our satisfaction, and we were constantly worried about having enough on the shelves for multiple traumas.  Several years ago we had to delay elective surgeries due to blood shortages.  One of the major reason we switched to the National Blood Exchange, the other pricing.  Local ARC was very expensive.

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I would also suggest you ask to be involved in review of any proposed contracts for change.  Often upper leadership is not knowledgeable enough to look beyond the cost of a rbc.  Often that cost may appear lower, but then there are more "hidden" costs (higher reference test cosst) or perhaps extra fees for: trips, restocking or moving stock, premium on certain group products and such.  So you need to look at the full picture when comparing any options.  Also, customer service provided is very important.  I would imagine a community blood center would be more vested in your needs.

 

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Our administration wanted to go to ARC from Lifesouth.  When we questioned about returns & found out that we couldn't unless we found another hospital to take it.  I figured up how many returns we had in the last year and  it would have more than eaten up the savings.  I sent those figures in response.

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I agree that your ARC experience depends on the region.  I'm in southern Oregon and we used to use ARC in Portland, three hours north.  If I called for PRBCs at 6 AM, they wouldn't arrive until 5 PM, because they would have missed the Greyhound bus.  ARL was not available overnight.  And they were more expensive.

We went with a community blood center affiliated with a larger group, Bloodworks NW, which is in Seattle.  We're an hour from our blood center and when we send up a reference specimen, it is flown up to Seattle from Eugene and sometimes I have preliminary results the next day because they work 24/7 for no extra charge.

Plus we are supplied a historical database on units, which has been a godsend.  

To me, the difference is the customer service level the community blood bank is willing to give us.  And they are cheaper!

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As Katie and Marianne mentioned above, cost and service is so very important now.

When choosing a blood supplier, the most important thing, imho, is to be as involved in the decision process as you can be.  If you belong to a purchasing group, make sure you get your concerns aired and your questions answered.  Make your expectations very clear.  A supplier who is interested in your business will do the best they can to provide you with what you need and if they can't provide it, they will tell you (or at least I hope they wouldn't make false promises).  It also doesn't hurt to revisit suppliers who you may have dealt with in the past to see if there have been improvements to their processes.  Things change over time and you may find that what you didn't like before has been rectified and even improved.

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We switched last year from a local supplier to ARC. The big downside is not being able to return RBC or frozen products. We have tried to transfer PLTPH to our sister hospitals, but we quit doing that also. I throw away units that before I would have returned to our supplier. I also hate unpacking the units  (they come in boxes) and having to throw those big bags of ice into the sink. Our local supplier would put the units in the frig or freezer if we wanted them to do that.

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We absolutely love working with the ARC in our region (Idaho). The Reference Lab folks are pleasant to work with and will do whatever is requested of them.  We have a courier system that delivers routine overnight shipments, and, if needed, the ARC will have someone drive units up to us.  We are 3.5 hours away from one blood center and 4 hours from the other.  They supply packed cells, FFP, Cryo, Pooled Cryo, Platelet Pheresis.  We do not have a need to receive single platelet packs.  Before we got our sterile connection device, they would also send units with aliquot bags attached.

Due to CAP question TRM.30882, I built a Supplier Selection Criteria form where we compare blood suppliers based on such questions as:

1. Are all blood products available?

2. What transportation is available: How many times a day for product arrival? What emergency transportation is available?

3. Are reference lab services offered?

4. Are expired or short-dated products credited?

5. What is the turn-around-time for providing products?

6. What are the client service hours, and is an 800 number provided?

7.  Are they open 7 days a week?

8. What are the billing options?

9. Who pays for blood transportation?

10. Do I have communications from the account manager?

Because of our distance from the blood centers, we send and receive products to/from other area hospitals.  The empty blood boxes are stored on our loading dock, and the courier returns them to the blood center once a week.  As for the ice, we have a cooler to store the ice bags for use in individual blood coolers used for patients in ED, OR, or wherever we need to send more than one unit at a time for a patient..  We don't have an ice machine in the lab, so this saves a trek down the hall.

ARC also offers Education events (SUCCESS).  I would encourage anyone to go with the American Red Cross.

 

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