BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – A nonprofit group providing blood to patients in need said it faces a low supply and is requesting hospitals suspend elective surgeries. 

What You Need To Know

  • Blood Assurance is a blood center that provides blood for 70 hospitals, including Bowling Green's TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital 

  • Blood Assurance is calling for those hospitals to suspend elective surgeries until next week

  • The group said the blood center had less than half a day's supply of most blood types, and holding elective surgeries until next Wednesday would allow for time to rebuild inventory

  • The short supply is due to recent traumas, such as a pile up on Interstate 75 South and cold weather

One of those hospitals is Bowling Green's TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital. The organization’s CEO is pleading for people to donate blood, a common need around Kentucky. 

Several seats were empty in Cincinnati's Hoxworth Blood Center donation room this past Monday, Jan. 22, which is the sole supplier of blood products to all greater Cincinnati area hospitals. However, public information officer Jackie Marschall said the organization's blood supply was in good shape, at least for the moment.

“We’re really lucky here in the Greater Cincinnati area; we haven’t had to suspend any surgeries or delay any surgeries, but we have seen a drop in donor turnout just because of the weather," Marschall said. "It’s that time of the year. Blood is not an infinite resource, so although our hospitals are in great shape right now, one accident can deplete an inventory of blood products.”

Hoxworth needs 450 donors each day to meet the demand of local hospitals. That doesn’t include unexpected or unplanned trauma. 

“Our donation pool keeps getting a little bit smaller and smaller,” Marschall said.

For that reason, Hoxworth is encouraging as many people as possible to set up an appointment to donate blood.

That’s also true for Blood Assurance, a blood center that provides blood for 70 hospitals, including TriStar Greenview. Other medical facilities it provides blood to are in Tennessee, Alabama, North Carolina and Georgia.

Blood Assurance is calling for those hospitals to suspend elective surgeries until next week. The group said the blood center had less than half a day's supply of most blood types and holding elective surgeries until next Wednesday would allow for time to rebuild inventory. President and CEO J.B. Gaskins said Blood Assurance usually prefers five days' worth of blood on its shelves.

The short supply is due to recent trauma, such as a pileup on Interstate 75 South and the cold weather, Gaskins said.

“The responsibility of the blood supply is that of the community; we are a community-based blood center,” Gaskins said. “Part of that stewardship is making sure we notify them in advance that we’re anticipating some issues. We would much rather err on the side of safety.”

Hospitals have what they call their PAR amount of blood, Gaskins said, but people need to step up for the common good. 

“My dad used to say, you’re either part of the solution or you’re the problem,” he said. “So I ask the community, 'Which one are you?'”

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