For as long as I can remember, organizations such as the Red Cross have constantly solicited blood donations because of the large demand for blood in medical procedures. According to the New York Times, however, that is changing and the various nonprofits that manage blood donation are being forced to merge and reduce their staffing.
Changes in medicine have eliminated the need for millions of blood transfusions, which is good news for patients getting procedures like coronary bypasses and other procedures that once required a lot of blood.
But the trend is wreaking havoc in the blood bank business, forcing a wave of mergers and job cutbacks unlike anything the industry, which became large scale after World War II, has ever seen.
Transfusions are down almost one-third over the last five years, to about 11 million units last year from about 15 million units, according to the American Red Cross, which has about 40 percent of the market. With “minimally invasive” techniques like laparoscopic surgery and other shifts in medicine, demand for blood continues to drop despite population growth and a soaring number of people over 65, who have the most surgeries requiring blood.
According to the NYT, recent studies of the efficacy of transfusions in a number of medical procedures have found that they are often not medically necessary, and as a result transfusions are being used far less often. In some cases, the amount of blood being used in medically indicated transfusions has been reduced as a result of new data.
This doesn’t mean that blood donors aren’t needed — 11 million units of blood still requires a lot of donors — but is an interesting example of medical progress leading to a surprising and unintended consequence in another part of the health care system.