By America's Blood Centers

It is time once again for the Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) National Blood Collection and Utilization Survey (NBCUS), conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). I know it seems like only yesterday (actually last winter) that you participated, but the latest data available on these things is from 2013. Preliminary results of the 2013 NBCUS were presented at this year’s AABB Annual Meeting in Anaheim, Calif., and CDC will aim to publish the results by early 2016. The survey results are used to generate national estimates of blood collections and transfusions to understand current blood use and to project future blood needs. Amongst the Feds, the data accumulated is of particular use to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the Food and Drug Administration, the Health Resources and Services Administration, and the National Institutes of Health- in addition to HHS/CDC. For the blood community, the data are critical in our advocacy efforts. 

Given the upheavals we are experiencing, everyone needs to know the direction that our collections and distributions are moving. The CDC will be opening the 2015 NBCUS during early February 2016 and analyzing the data for distribution and use about six months after closing the survey (fall/winter 2016). From where I am sitting, it is critical that 100 percent of ABC centers respond. 

I have reviewed a very late draft of the 2015 survey data elements. It is available to ABC member voting representatives on the member website here (with permission from the Office of Blood, Organs and Other Tissue Safety/CDC in Atlanta). Please download it to prepare to collate the needed information. 

Similar to the 2013 NBCUS, the CDC will e-mail each of you a unique web link to your center’s survey. The link will take you to the 2015 NBCUS Portal Page where your responses can be entered. There are three sections: (A) general information; (B) blood collection, processing, and testing; and (C) blood transfusion. If you have questions regarding the survey, contact Koo Chung (jeq4@cdc.gov, 404-498-0730) or Sridhar Basavaraju, MD, (etu7@cdc.gov, 404-498-0729). 

With high member participation in the ABC Data Warehouse, we hope that ABC data for the 2017 version will be uploaded from the Data Warehouse to CDC, and you won’t have to go back in the water.

Louis Katz, MD; Chief Medical Officer; lkatz@americasblood.org 

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