Blood Community Collaborates to Address Potential Temporary Shortage of Essential Blood Collection Supplies

Last week, a large manufacturer of blood collection supplies placed a corporate hold on several essential blood collection products. Because of the indispensable nature of these supplies and the small number of blood collection supply manufacturers, this corporate hold had the potential to disrupt regular operations at blood collection facilities and, therefore, could compromise the continued adequacy of the nation’s blood supply.

The AABB Interorganizational Task Force on Domestic Disasters and Acts of Terrorism, in collaboration with others in the blood community, began working to address the situation immediately. On Tuesday, the Task Force contacted key federal agencies and requested that they act urgently and in coordination to effectively resolve the situation.

By the end of Tuesday, the company released the corporate hold and was cleared to resume the shipment of all impacted products. The swift resolution of this issue minimized the potential impact on blood collection operations.

“This is an example of the blood community collaborating to successfully address a challenge that could have had a wide-reaching impact on blood collection in the United States,” said John Hagins, chair of the Task Force. “Thanks to the swift actions of members of the Task Force, federal authorities, industry partners and others in the blood community, the situation was resolved quickly and without impacting blood collection.”