Blood Center ROI from Your Apheresis Machine

The Talon team has talked to many blood centers to understand the importance of protecting your financial investment in an apheresis machine and generating a Return on Investment (ROI) from running a blood drive.

For blood centers small to large, there are key factors that put pressure on your ability to generate a positive ROI, and the apheresis machine is just one piece of the puzzle:

• Do you have proper planning tools to predict the turnout at each blood drive?
• Can you predict the right amount of staff members to send to a blood drive?
• Do you have safe and reliable transportation to and from blood drives?
• Do you have a maintenance plan to protect your equipment, such as the apheresis machine?

I would like to look at each of these four factors to determine if there are ways that your blood center can identify inefficiencies that are impacting your ability to generate an ROI from running blood drives.

Factor #1: Can You Anticipate The Right Equipment to Bring?

Some blood centers serve the same client on a regular basis, which helps to know which equipment to bring to a blood drive. Conversely, other blood centers face an unpredictable turnout regularly hosting one-off blood drives.

Depending on where your blood center fits on the scale of predictable to unpredictable turnout, you may face difficulty anticipating how many apheresis machines to include with your equipment. You may not be able to achieve perfect accuracy, but you should use planning tools to look at historical data and talk to the event host to get a ballpark idea of expected turnout.

If you anticipate that the majority of donors will provide a whole blood donation that does not require an apheresis machine, then you may only need to bring one apheresis machine to serve the few individuals that want to donate red blood cells, plasma, or platelets.

However, if you anticipate several donors sitting down for two hours for a full apheresis collection, then you may need to bring multiple machines to ensure that you can serve as many donors as possible.

Factor #2: Can You Plan Your Staff Needs?

We understand that one of the most difficult challenges for blood centers is planning the appropriate staffing against the predicted turnout at a blood drive.

The historical data you have about past blood drives and the pre-event conversations with the event host could provide guidance on your staffing needs. Because of the variables specific to your blood center, you may not be able to achieve accuracy every time. However, it is important to strive for the best staffing mix possible.

Trying to find the best mix is important because you already spent time and money training specific team members on how to use the apheresis machine. Now, if they sit idly at the blood drive without donors to serve, then you increase staffing costs and reduce your ROI from the blood drive.

Factor #3: Do You Have Reliable and Safe Transportation?

From time to time, your blood center may need to revisit your transportation needs to run an efficient blood drive.

There could be hidden costs due to the age of your vehicle, your staff not being properly trained on how to safely operate the vehicle, or the vehicle no longer adequately serving the needs of equipment such as the apheresis machine.

Here is what you can control right now: ensure that your team is operating safely and verify that the right mix of staff members are delivering good service at each blood drive to minimize expenses. This will contribute to a positive ROI for your equipment investment.

Factor #4: Inefficient Transport of the Apheresis Machine

A fourth factor to consider is your means of transporting equipment, especially the apheresis machine. If you use bulky containers to transport the machine from your blood center to a blood drive, then you risk driving up the costs of a drive, reducing your ROI.

The container method is highly inefficient because it often requires additional vehicles for transportation and unnecessary employees simply to maneuver the equipment. The added expenses from an extra vehicle or an extra employee will quickly add up, increasing your costs.

Additionally, if you rely on containers to transport the machine, you could incur costs from additional wear and tear, needing to replace parts, or even replacing the entire unit if there is extensive damage. That is why we recommend shifting to a mobile carting system.

Consider the Talon SAM Cart for Your Carting System

Talon serves the needs of blood centers who (a) need to completely switch from containers to a mobile carting system or (b) need to upgrade their existing carting system to a more reliable and secure system to protect the physical condition of your apheresis machine. To support either operational need, we are proud to offer our Secure Apheresis Machine Cart (SAM Cart).

SAM Cart side view (lid on and power option)

Our durable SAM Cart optimizes your workflow on the day of a blood drive, reduces the costs associated with investing in an apheresis machine, and helps securely transfer collections back to your blood center.

How would you like to see numbers capturing the value of our solution? You can calculate your total potential savings and ROI right now. Simply visit our Blood Center solutions page, scroll to the bottom of the page, and use our custom calculator.

The calculator will ask you to provide specific information about your typical blood drive, then display your first-year savings, five-year savings, and five-year ROI percentage.

Once you see your calculation, click the blue button to fill out our contact form to submit your information. Then, one of our Client Solutions Representatives will contact you within 1-2 business days to get started on a custom solution.

We look forward to working with you to help support your apheresis machine investment and generate a positive ROI for your blood drive.