service line within our acute care facilities. Yet, the market ... local emergencies. Add on top of these challenges the
HEALTHCARE INNOVATIONS A Knowledge Transfusion: Innovation in Blood Procurement
By Sue Casey VP, Premier Inc. Blood is one of the core commodities of healthcare; it fuels the care delivery models of every major service line within our acute care facilities. Yet, the market structure for blood products in the U.S. is extremely fragmented and inefficient. This gives rise to spot shortages and tremendous price variations from region-to-region. The blood supply, like many other resources in the U.S., is unevenly distributed across the country. Some areas may have more than enough blood than is needed at a given point in time, while others may have too little. As a result, many providers may find it difficult to access this critical resource while others may be forced to pay more in order to do so. To make matters worse, the blood supply is highly susceptible to event-driven risk. Spot shortages can arise due to seasonality, severe weather events or local emergencies. Add on top of these challenges the fact that the shelf-life of blood products is measured in terms of days, and you have a pretty complicated situation to manage. In an effort to address these challenges and enable an ecosystem type approach, Bloodbuy, a Dallasbased company, has developed a cloud-based technology backbone that enables hospitals to optimize their blood product procurement processes by accessing a broader base of suppliers. The platform serves as a network for hospitals to access blood products from multiple qualified suppliers while also enabling suppliers to share resources with one another more effectively. A byproduct of engaging with the platform is an immense amount of data that is shared back with users in real-time. This valuable data can aid in process improvement on a user, facility, organization and blood supply ecosystem level. The evidence behind Bloodbuy’s approach is pretty compelling. In fact, the company recently won the first-ever Harvard Health Acceleration Challenge; an 18-month innovation competition run by the Harvard Forum on Healthcare Innovation. Bloodbuy is changing the blood market, and as a leader in healthcare transformation, Premier is proud to partner with them. Click here to learn more about how you can ensure you are getting access to blood products efficiently and at competitive pricing or stop by the Innovators Connection at this year’s AHA Leadership Summit to hear Bloodbuy CEO Chris Godfrey speak about how they’re changing the blood market.
