Do hospitals use blood as soon as they receive it?

You are not thinking this completely through: what if there is a large accident (car etc) and someone needs a great deal of blood NOW-then yes, they would order blood to be delivered emergently. Hospitals do maintain a supply of blood, but not enormous amounts because it expires (about 3 weeks). If a surgery is scheduled, blood is ordered in advance to anticipate that need, but if someone has an unexpected bleed, then MORE blood will also be needed emergently. Some rarer types can not be stored in great quantities, and again must be brought in. Blood is always in short supply so you never want to "store it up" somewhere. The idea is to keep on hand what you need & can use. So the supply is finely tuned & shifted about.

So you suspect "the ploy" incorrectly, and I hope you are not dragging your feet just because you think there is a ploy and are skeptical-I hope someone does not bleed to death over you. At our hospital, red cross had its own courier; but can't say where you are from, what the standards are. Banked blood is stored cold, so the ice is correct.

Gonzo, you ask a very open ended question with little detail.

"customer that supplies hospitals with blood" .... be more specific. who is the customer? is it another hospital or is it a person at a home or what.

Where is the blood being delivered to directly at the hospital.. Let me be more clear: is it the laboratory, the x-ray department, nuclear physics department, I wont go on.

I work in a major teaching hospital (for some 25+ years) and your question would be answered more clearly if you clarify it.

There are cases where unique blood group may be only available at a particular hospital and needs to be shipped quick smart to another. We get heaps of requests like that.

That particular blood you are transporting may have been collected from the patient on the table a few days before (called an autologous collect) and may have been specially treated elsewhere and now is ready to be infused back into the patient. You do not know what they mean by "on the table".

I hope that clears that.

A bag of blood is stable at the right conditions for several days/weeks, depending what it is needed for.

MY

1] "on the table" could be the OR, the ER, ICU, or even L&D - all home to some pretty spectacular bleeds [ sometimes patients on the wards start massive ones too - such as a GI bleed ]

2] blood is only stored for three weeks, then must be disposed of

3] blood supplies in blood banks vary a lot, as they are dependent on volunteers

4] if someone is hemorraging, the hospital may easily run out of the blood that person requires

PS: my personal record in L&D was a woamn who needed 22 pints of blood after her uterus ruptured [ at home, old vertical Csection scar blew - baby was fine; too damned exciting for me! ]

I'm sure they do, remember things can happen unexpectedly, a surgery goes wrong, or someone comes in from a car accident and needs blood immediately, but they don't have the right blood type on hand, and they need you guys to deliver the one you have. Just because they are a hospital doesn't mean they don't have limited resources, I'm sure when you are getting that blood to them fast you are saving lives.

It could be that they're just trying to get you to deliver it faster, but it could also be that they genuinely ran out of the typed blood they need. Not all surgeries are planned (ie: emergency cases), and not all surgeries will go according to plan, which may require more blood than was originally though

well if the blood isnt used within 2 hours it goes bad. and since there is not that much need for the blood the doctors normally just use it for sexual pleasures

I do not believe that's true

it's possible yes

No