Some hospitals have had to cancel surgeries and reschedule urgent care as blood supplies drop across the country.

Only about half of hospitals’ blood orders are filled, according to group buying group Vizient. Some rural facilities are forced to categorize care by prioritizing who gets treatment and who doesn’t.

“Some of my colleagues in rural areas do this every day,” said Dr. Claudia Cohn, medical director of Minnesota Medical Center M Health Fairview University Medical Center. M Health, a 15-hospital system in Minneapolis, had to slightly reduce its standard inventory levels and avoid delays or cancellations of care.

“Lowering the standard inventory in rural areas is an even scarier thing. If there’s a car accident or someone has a stomach bleed in the middle of the night, it can be a life-or-death situation,” Cohen said.

More than a third of community blood centers report a day’s supply or less, according to American Blood Centers daily update from 59 banks. Centers with three days or more had enough supply to meet normal operational needs, but more than two-thirds had two days or less of blood on hand.

A hospital in Raleigh, North Carolina, recently received 10 units of type O blood following a multi-person traumatic event, said Akiva Faerber, senior director of labs and blood consulting at Vizient. The hospital’s O blood supply, which is usually 20 units, has dropped to seven, he said.

“Many of our Vizient members have been calling me for the past three weeks in desperate attempts to get additional product,” said Faerber, who described the current shortage as the worst in his 47 years in the industry. “Many hospitals are asking for Os, but the Red Cross is metering regular orders. Some hospitals have had orders reduced by as much as 60 percent,” he said.

Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, owned and operated by Los Angeles County, temporarily closed its trauma center to new patients for several hours this week.

“It has had a profound negative impact on patient care, from eliminating elective procedures in an attempt to preserve scarce resources, to [emergency departments] Bloodbuy sells software that facilitates blood distribution, said Christopher Godfrey, chief executive of Bloodbuy. “Because of COVID-19 and its negative impact on blood donations across the country. This is truly a public health crisis and all indications are that it may get worse before it gets better.”

This COVID-19 pandemic Blood donation is inhibited for several reasons. One is that vacant offices and schools mean less donation activity.blood suppliers such as Other Healthcare Industries, there are also staffing issues.

Blood donations down 10% since March 2020, Red Cross data exhibit. According to the group, blood donations at colleges and high schools have dropped by 62% due to the pandemic, disease, weather and staffing.

Many hospitals have had to postpone non-urgent surgeries again as they struggle to keep up with the latest COVID-19 surge.This helps preserve blood, but many facilities have adapted or are considering Adjust their blood distribution regimen.

“This is the worst blood shortage in more than a decade and poses worrying risks to patient care,” the Red Cross website said. “Physicians are forced to make decisions about who receives blood transfusions and who needs to wait until more products are available. Difficult decision. Blood and platelet donations are critical to help prevent further delays in important medical treatment.”

Traditionally, clinicians have defaulted to blood transfusions when a patient’s hemoglobin count falls below 10 g/dL. But according to recent research, many patients with levels between 7 and 10 g/dL may not need blood transfusions. Research This suggests that one unit of blood may be safer instead of two.

Hospitals now tell patients to eat more green leafy vegetables, nuts and other foods to boost iron levels, and give them intravenous iron or red blood cell stimulators before surgery to reduce blood loss. Some people are using cytoprotective devices to recover blood during surgery.

“These measures are very important and need to be part of the hospital’s preoperative assessment,” Cohen said.

Clinicians are spending more time than before to determine if a patient is stable enough or if a blood transfusion is needed, and they are developing alternatives, Faerber said. “We are still behind the times in assessing our blood use more carefully,” he said.

Meanwhile, larger health systems are doing better because they can move blood between hospitals, as is the case at Roseville, Calif.-based Adventist Health and its West Coast facility, a spokesman said.

The University of Utah Health Center in Salt Lake City maintains an adequate blood supply and does not have to delay care, similar to Memorial Herman Health System in Houston and Froedtert Health Center in Milwaukee, according to the companies.

Edward-Elmhurst Health in Naperville, Illinois, has expanded its network of blood suppliers and has received shipments from Florida and New York, said Guy Diehl, director of the Edward Hospital blood bank.

“It’s a testament to how hard the system works,” Deere said. “We’d be happy if people could donate.”