Role of Management and Administration in Transfusion Medicine

Abstract

The blood centre in Houston began operations in January of 1975 with a staff of 63 people, collections of 46,000 units of whole blood, an annual budget of $1.1 million (US), and provided services to patients in about 80 hospitals. Because of the substantial increase in patient needs in the Texas Gulf Coast area, including the world’s largest medical centre (Texas Medical Center), which employs 60,000 people, we have had to grow rapidly to meet these patient needs. Today, our staff numbers over 390, we collect about 185,000 whole blood units annually, plus almost 20,000 apheresis procedures; our budget now exceeds $24 million (US); we serve 109 health care facilities, and patients in these facilities will use over 450,000 units of blood and blood components. Our greatest challenge has not been keeping up with the medical and technical aspects of this growth, but rather the administration and management aspects. Additionally, the general public, on many occasions, seems much more interested in the administrative and management aspects than the technical ones.