Blood Bank
Chapter 18: Inventory Management in Blood Banks
Harshal Lowalekar and N. Ravichandran
Operations Management and Quantitative Techniques Area
Indian Institute of Management Indore
18.1 What is Blood?
Blood performs many important functions in the human body such as carrying oxygen and nutrients to the various cells and tissues of the body, waste removal, fighting against diseases, regulation of the body temperature, regulation of body acidity, etc. [1, 2].
Blood contains three different kinds of cells: red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets; these cells constitute about 45% of the blood while the remaining 55% is constituted by plasma [2]. RBCs are transfused to the patients suffering from sickle cell anemia, gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney failure [3, 4]. WBCs are responsible for fighting against diseases and foreign matter in the human body [2, 5]. WBC transfusions are not common since they can lead to many complications such as transfer of infections along with some transfusion related reactions in the body of the recipient [6]. Platelets facilitate the process of blood clotting and are therefore required in cases where a patient is suffering from bleeding disorders [3]. Plasma is the fluid portion of blood that contains nutrients, salts, antibodies, waste products and clotting proteins [1, 2, 5]. Plasma is given to trauma and burn victims and also to the patients with clotting disorders [3, 4].
Human blood can be classified into eight blood groups: O+, O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+ and AB-. In earlier days, O- blood group was considered to be universal donor1 while AB+ was considered to be universal acceptor. This concept is no more valid today; a patient of a given blood group type can only be transfused with blood of the same type.
18.2 Blood Bank
A blood bank is a facility which collects, tests, processes and stores blood and its components for future use [7, 8, 9, 10]. The primary responsibility of any blood bank is to plan
Harshal Lowalekar and N. Ravichandran
Operations Management and Quantitative Techniques Area
Indian Institute of Management Indore
18.1 What is Blood?
Blood performs many important functions in the human body such as carrying oxygen and nutrients to the various cells and tissues of the body, waste removal, fighting against diseases, regulation of the body temperature, regulation of body acidity, etc. [1, 2].
Blood contains three different kinds of cells: red blood cells (RBCs), white blood cells (WBCs) and platelets; these cells constitute about 45% of the blood while the remaining 55% is constituted by plasma [2]. RBCs are transfused to the patients suffering from sickle cell anemia, gastrointestinal bleeding and kidney failure [3, 4]. WBCs are responsible for fighting against diseases and foreign matter in the human body [2, 5]. WBC transfusions are not common since they can lead to many complications such as transfer of infections along with some transfusion related reactions in the body of the recipient [6]. Platelets facilitate the process of blood clotting and are therefore required in cases where a patient is suffering from bleeding disorders [3]. Plasma is the fluid portion of blood that contains nutrients, salts, antibodies, waste products and clotting proteins [1, 2, 5]. Plasma is given to trauma and burn victims and also to the patients with clotting disorders [3, 4].
Human blood can be classified into eight blood groups: O+, O-, A+, A-, B+, B-, AB+ and AB-. In earlier days, O- blood group was considered to be universal donor1 while AB+ was considered to be universal acceptor. This concept is no more valid today; a patient of a given blood group type can only be transfused with blood of the same type.
18.2 Blood Bank
A blood bank is a facility which collects, tests, processes and stores blood and its components for future use [7, 8, 9, 10]. The primary responsibility of any blood bank is to plan