The development of a recruiting-drawing-inventory model for a community blood bank system.

A community blood bank system is a multiorganizational program that is designed to supply the blood needs of a community. Participating in such a program are hospitals, a central blood bank, industrial donor groups, the American Red Cross, advisory committees, and the community at large. The underlying determinant of the community's success or failure with its blood program is the degree of cooperation among the various organizations. Intertwined with organizational considerations are the management problems associated with the operation of a responsive and efficient inventory control system. This paper reports on the development of a system for a community blood bank that is in its third year of operation. The system that has been developed can be operated manually by a part-time clerk. Details of the model include an integration of the donor scheduling function and the inventory control function. Simulated testing of the model has been conducted and full-scale implementation is awaiting the expansion of the known donor base.