Comparative Study of Case Study Summaries With APA Table
Week 5- Case Study: Community Blood Centers
Student A:
Summary
In this case study, the focus is fostering a connection between the community, donors, and hospitals. Achieving this goal requires the increase of donors and sponsors. A collaboration was initiated with ten Charlotte hospitals for a community blood organization. With the cost of blood continue to remain an issue and impacted the hospitals. It was undeniable the continuous there was a need for blood despite the cost associated with what Red Cross stated as the national pricing. This resulted in the group deciding to investigate being an independent blood center (Swayne, 2004).
Best Practices
With Red Cross pricing, it was discovered it was lower in areas where there was competition. What is considered as competition in Charlotte to reduce to price?
New York Blood Center Enterprise is known as one of the largest independent, community-based blood center (NYBCe, 2020). NYBCe do not only serve the local community but ventured into the national and global community (NYBE, 2020). This has contributed to their success. They also thrive through their volunteer services. Volunteers from highs schools and colleges receive community services hours to volunteer during blood drives. Leverage volunteers lowers cost associated to staffing.
Recognizing that donations fluctuate during certain times of the year despite the consistency in need of blood supply was opportunity to adapt to the market. Ramping up during peak months is essential. The winter can present challenges as there is a reduction in donations due to flu and snow season (Parker-Pope, 2023).
Recommendation/Next Steps
Continue to gain loyalty and buy-in from the residents in the community. Red Cross continues to have a competitive advantage in not just Charlotte, but in Carolina as an entity. It will be a great challenge gaining and sustaining a competitive advantage over the Red Cross solely through donors’ contribution. Red Cross has the resource to partake in over ten thousand blood drives each year (Swayne, 2004).
Create a partnership with Red Cross, CBC can gain the benefit of exposure (tag to a known organization). Addition to the exposure, CBC can achieve their goal of donor development. Success is possible as from 1997 through 2003, the Carolinas collection was leading in the nation (Swayne, 2004).
Conclusion
I disagree with Martin Gable in donor development being the future of the Community Blood Centers of Carolina. If he continues with that vision, it will place limitation on their growth. They will also struggle with gaining competitive advantage over the Red Cross. Red Cross is a large organization as continues to struggle themselves with donations. Although I understand in the belief that donors drive:
The machines being leased
The staff productivity
Lowers costs of production
Contribute to meeting the need of blood demand
Health Policy Question
How do we make eligible donors aware of the changes in the rules (making even more people eligible)due to advancement in science over the years?
References:
1. Parker-Pope, T. (2023). In times of crisis, blood donation helps others, and it might help you. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/02/09/blood-donation-rules-changes-red-cross/
2. Swayne, L. (2004). Community blood center of the Carolinas: donations, donations, donations. https://courserooma.capella.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/DHA/DHA8032/220400/Course_Files/cf_community_blood_center.pdf
3. New York Blood Center Enterprises. (2020). https://www.nybc.org/media/nybloodcenter/filer_public/3c/e8/3ce8a9ae-7be8-4a5d-864e-65fa0446c09e/nybcenterprisescommunityreport2020.pdf
Student B:
Case Study: Community Blood Centers
. Building a relationship through donor development and sponsor was the mission of CBCC.
The importance of linking a community blood center with the community and to have top priority for the community blood center to think of its customers first to have a strong community. Collaboration with ten area hospitals to service them with the community first motto gave his group the advantage over the others since the hospitals were unhappy with their services they provided. One of the key issues was to start a partnership with other area community blood centers to compete with the Red Cross which dominated the area for service (Swayne, et. al., 2008).
Licensing for the new organization would take 3 years to get and the CBCC organization decided it would benefit them to work under the licensure of the Virginia Blood center US Food and Drug Administration blood license to get the company started while waiting for the 3 years completion to get a license for the new organization (Swayne, et. al., 2008)
. The competition was also in blood cost that was high and there was not much competition to be able to acquire the blood the community needed at a reasonable cost from the other suppliers and the top supplier that was the Red Cross. The social problem was competing with the Red Cross who was the dominant supplier and offering additional services as a supplier would be a sustainable advantage over the Red Cross with lower costs.
The CBCC competitive edge was being a customer focused organization using the community health systems as partners. The CBCC strength in its strategies was also a strategic alternative by partnering with The American Association of Blood Banks that is an international association of community blood centers, hospitals, and offers services of transfusion and transplantation medical services. The company has much experience and accreditation in the market of blood banking already (Swayne, et. al., 2008).
. The community blood center strategies that if they were to bring more competition to the area the cost for the product, they needed to sale would be low. Merging with other independent blood center would bring more competition to the market place and acquiring new potential donors in the area would better compete with the leading groups of big companies that already supply blood to the area as high cost (Swayne, et. al., 2008).
.
The strength of the collaboration of the community blood centers along with the partnering of ten hospitals was that supplies of blood was donated by the community and would be used in the community strengthening relationship along with the community they serve.
CBCC partnering with hospitals used a vertical integrated system that brought with them state of the art therapies, radiation therapy facilities, and advanced technology along with skilled staff that would make health care affordable, accessible and effective for area family’s needs in the community (Swayne, et. al., 2008). A wide range of services offered made the hospitals and their blood service carrier a need in their community.
Assessing the market in the Charlotte area was strong as it had 1.5 million people living in the area and the potential donors out of that number would be a positive for eligible new donors for the area and community need.
Based on my analysis of the Community Blood Center of the Carolinas Martin Gable is corrected in donor development at the being the top future strategy of the blood bank marking. Small blood centers that partner, cater to community first is key. Donor development relationship partnering is a community need and community engagement in the process is happy to invest in the process that will benefit them first. Community engagement is a benefit for all involved.
Reference:
Swayne, Linda E., Duncan W. J. and P.M. Ginter. Community Blood Centers of the Carolinas: Donations, Donations, Donations (2008). The Strategic management of Health Care Organizations 6th edition, pp. 476-498. Retrieved 2/8/2023