Red Cross Struggles to Improve Blood Collection
July 17, 2008 | Read Time: 1 minute
The American Red Cross is still struggling to improve its methods of collecting and processing blood donations, despite a federal court order 15 years ago that demanded it do so, according to The New York Times.
Since 2003, the federal government has leveled fines against it totaling $21-million. In January, Andrew C. von Eschenbach, the U.S. commissioner of food and drugs, attended a Red Cross board meeting to caution members that they could face criminal charges if they did not make good on promises to improve the safety of the nation’s blood supply, according to three anonymous Red Cross officials who attended the meeting.
The problems, according to the federal agency’s reports, include the Red Cross’s lapses in screening donors for possible exposure to diseases, failures to test potential donors for syphilis, and negligence in throwing out deficient blood.
The Red Cross, which controls 43 percent of the nation’s blood supply, has acknowledged problems with its quality control and has promised to fix them.
Bernadine Healy, a former chief executive of the Red Cross, suggests that the best solution might be to spin off the Red Cross’s blood services. “Two-thirds of the revenue base of the Red Cross is blood, yet the Red Cross is run by people who think of it as primarily a disaster-relief organization, relegating blood to stepchild status,” Dr. Healy said. “When is the last time you saw a Red Cross fund-raising appeal for money to make the blood supply safer or support its blood research?”
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