American Red Cross BloodHub

The cloud-based computer portal American Red Cross Connect/Blood Hub is used to replace the paper-based ordering system for when the VA Boston Healthcare System Blood Bank needs to order blood products, Antibody workups from local or national reference lab, Molecular Testing, or HLA tested products from the American Red Cross. Once approved for use it will shorten turnaround time and reduce clerical errors over the backup phone method of ordering blood products and paper method of ordering patient sample testing. The portal will also be used to deliver the workup results from the reference lab allowing the Blood Bank to have a copy of the final report as soon as it is approved by the ARC reference lab supervisor instead of waiting for it to come in the mail.

The ARC Blood Hub program with be used by the Blood Bank staff (who have been registered on the site) to order blood products for transfusion to patients. The services that require patient information to be entered include samples sent to the ARC reference laboratory for antibody identification, samples for HLA, Molecular testing, and National Reference Lab.

A contract with the American Red Cross for the services outlined in the use case. Red Cross will then provide user names and passwords for access to BloodHub.