Growth in Valley, State has Banner Good Samaritan Taking Measures to Alleviate Blood Shortages
Arizona's Busiest Surgery, Trauma Departments Require Blood for Lifesaving Procedures
Contact: Banner Good Samaritan Public Relations
1111 E. McDowell Road
Phoenix, AZ 85006
Phone: (602) 239-4729
Fax: (602) 239-2472
PHOENIX (March 17, 2003) – Working around chronic blood shortages has become a daily occurrence at Banner Good Samaritan Medical Center, the largest hospital in the Banner Health system. The population expansion in the Phoenix metropolitan area has nearly overwhelmed several major medical centers, including Banner Good Samaritan. In 2001, Banner Health approved a $90 million, three-year expansion project for Banner Good Samaritan that will increase the acute patient bed count from 508 to 626.
"Our facility is experiencing tremendous growth due to the increased number of patients we are serving," said Steven L. Seiler, Banner Good Samaritan chief executive officer. "There is no longer a significant seasonal variation in volume, as it was in the past. Many times during the summer months we've been caring for close to 500 acute-care inpatients. During the winter months, Banner Good Samaritan is often at capacity for several days."
Banner Good Samaritan is one of five Level I trauma centers in the Phoenix metropolitan area and the site of Arizona's busiest surgical unit. These two statistics combine to make Banner Good Samaritan the largest consumer of blood products in the state.
"On average, Good Samaritan receives 1,350 units of packed red blood cells each month from United Blood Services," said Amy Nicewonger, Blood Bank supervisor at Banner Good Samaritan. "We also require 250 units of single-donor platelets and 600 units of fresh frozen plasma per month."
Banner Good Samaritan's trauma room received 2,528 patients in 2002, its busiest year ever. Critically-injured patients are often given blood as soon as they reach Banner Good Samaritan, according to trauma coordinator Robinelle Schroder.
"Traumas often require emergent surgery and that requires an immediate supply of blood. Our patients need the blood because blood is the best means to transport oxygen to the damaged parts of the body," Schroder said. "We can provide patients with O- blood immediately when they hit the door. This type provides a way to stabilize a patient in a crisis until more closely matched blood is available. Unfortunately, type O blood is the hardest to obtain."
The hospital's surgery department is the single largest user of blood products. "Surgeons at Banner Good Samaritan performed 14,472 procedures in 2002 and nearly every procedure requires some additional blood product," Nicewonger said. "A lifesaving liver transplant requires 10 units of blood, and an open-heart often requires four units."
Banner Good Samaritan created a Blood Conservation Medicine program in 1999 that presents options to physicians and patients to reduce the need for outside blood during elective surgery. Through a combination of physician techniques, new medicines, and blood-saving machinery in the surgical suite, Blood Conservation Medicine is dedicated to providing medical and surgical care while reducing or eliminating a patient's need for a blood transfusion.
The Blood Conservation Medicine program has quietly grown into one of the leading programs in the nation. Surgeons have performed open-heart surgery, kidney-pancreas transplants and major orthopedic surgeries without blood.
Even with programs like Blood Conservation Medicine available, patients still require banked blood products for lifesaving procedures and the need is rising every day. Banner Good Samaritan's banked blood usage for the first quarter of 2003 is currently 14 percent above normal and has been as high as 30 percent above normal, according to Nicewonger.
"It is important to have the blood on hand at all times," Nicewonger said, "whether it is needed for several small cases or, more imperative, should several units be required to save a life."
In November 2000, Lizett Reyna was transported to Banner Good Samaritan's trauma unit after being shot in the head. The bullet severed her left vertebral artery, which is one of two main vessels that supply blood to the back of the brain. Interventional surgeons Charles Nutting, DO, and Maria Colombo, MD, saved her life through an innovative procedure that sealed off the damaged artery, but not before Reyna had used 22 units of packed red cells and another eight units of platelets and plasma.
"She basically bled out several times between the time she was brought into the trauma room and when we finished the surgery in the operating room," Dr. Nutting recalled. "Fortunately, she came through the procedure in excellent shape with no damage to her brain or her motor functions due to the immediate blood loss.
"If it wasn't for the generosity of Arizonans who donated their blood, the outcome may have been more tragic," Nutting added. "Had there been a severe blood shortage, we may not have had the blood available that saved Lizett's life. We appreciate all the people who donate blood because that's one of the best tools we have to save lives."
Banner Good Samaritan is working with United Blood Services and Arizona's trauma hospitals to call attention to the need for blood during this current shortage. "What is desperately needed is for current donors to give more often and for new donors to begin giving lifesaving blood," Nicewonger added.
United Blood Services has eight donation locations in the Valley. To make an appointment to donate blood, please call (602) 431-9500 or visit http://www.unitedbloodservices.org/.
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