The complexity of economic processes, the turbulence of the environment, the unpredictability of economic trends, and the globalization of the market make management, especially of resources, extremely complex, thus posing a challenge for modern managers. In the opinion of many, management requires sound knowledge, experience, and luck. However, these traits are related to the quality of management, which in turn is linked to the increasing importance of planning, organizing, implementing, and controlling. Increasingly, managers seeking a path to competitive advantage are turning to tools and methods used in logistics. The ability to recognize logistics processes and functions within an organization is therefore becoming one of the desired managerial competencies.
Perceiving logistics as a success factor in an enterprise and the search for cost savings have led to its application in areas sometimes very far removed from traditional practical (economic) activities. The authors of this paper have focused on a new area of logistics application, namely logistics in the management of blood resources and/or blood-derived products in Poland.
The essence of blood donation, the blood donation and blood treatment system
Blood flowing in veins and arteries is a source of vital forces for every human being from the moment of conception. Without blood, whose components form a highly developed defense and transport system upon which our life and health depend, we cannot in many cases treat and save another human being. Blood is needed for this purpose every day, and its demand increases on average by about 6-8% year by year. This is due to the performance of more complex procedures and in an increasing number of them. In Poland, blood (as a priceless medicine) is not a commodity – a product intended for sale – and its acquisition takes place honorably in a system that, under Polish conditions, can be divided into civilian and uniformed services. The blood management system is a set of functional tasks, including the operations of centers for the collection, storage, and processing of blood, the shaping of policy regarding the storage of blood stocks, the implementation of deliveries, and the infrastructure necessary to perform these tasks. The system enables the management of blood flows between system units and the final recipient. In Poland, blood is collected in centers, regional branches, and also during mobile campaigns, for which specially constructed ambulances are used. In the civilian system, which is in the authors’ research field, Regional Blood Donation and Blood Treatment Centers (hereinafter referred to as RCKiK) operate, which were established successively. Currently (2010), there are 21 Regional Blood Donation and Blood Treatment Centers operating along with 184 regional branches. The distribution of RCKiK is shown in Figure 1. RCKiK secure the needs of hospitals (of which there were 7,324 in Poland according to 2008 data) for blood and/or blood-derived products. The tasks of RCKiK include in particular:
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qualifying candidates for donors and donors for blood donation
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maintaining a register of blood donors and a register of rare blood group donors
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collecting blood and performing related procedures
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collecting, preserving, storing, and issuing blood
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promoting honorary blood donation and recruiting blood donors
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supplying healthcare facilities with blood and its components as well as blood-derived products
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supplying pharmaceutical manufacturers with plasma
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providing consultations related to blood treatment
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maintaining a register of post-transfusion complications
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exercising supervision in the field of blood donation and blood treatment
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organizing training in the fields of blood donation and blood treatment.
In Poland, this system is uniform, operates based on uniform regulations applicable throughout the country, and has uniform supervision over blood treatment, which likely results in a lower frequency of post-transfusion complications, as well as – and most importantly from the point of view of management principles – ensures the country’s self-sufficiency in the supply of blood and/or blood-derived products. According to World Health Organization data, Poland is a self-sufficient country in the supply of blood and/or blood-derived products, while plasma-derived products are purchased abroad in the form of finished medicines because there is no fractionation plant, i.e., plasma processing, in Poland. Thus, the described system is an open system, even though the principles of blood management provide for functioning in a closed system. Hence, when describing the premises for applying logistics in the blood donation and blood treatment system, we will refer them to semi-closed systems. Referring to the definition of the blood donation system, it is worth emphasizing its functional aspect – it speaks of “enabling the management of blood flows between system units and the final recipient”, therefore of a system (largely self-sufficient) in which blood flows are carried out on a continuous basis, which in this process is collected from a human (called a “donor”), processed, labeled, stored multiple times, distributed, and finally administered to a patient (called a “recipient”). These flows are accompanied by information streams. In such a configuration, logisticians immediately recognize the potential possibilities of applying logistics. Additionally, the tasks of RCKiK largely refer to the experiences of logistics, drawn from its business and military applications. Therefore – concluding this part of the considerations – the authors notice fields for the application of logistics in the blood donation and blood treatment system.
The article comes from the journal “Logistyka” 3/2010.