BETHLEHEM, Pa. — A change in the longstanding contract between the Lehigh Valley’s community blood center and one of the area’s largest hospital systems went into effect this month.
Miller-Keystone Blood Center now is Lehigh Valley Health Network’s secondary blood supplier.
"We've made all the changes internally," Miller-Keystone Blood Center Chief Executive Officer Peter Castagna said.
"We've redeployed labor, we've refocused some of the inventory, we've bolstered our inventory, and so it's a new business as usual.”
Miller-Keystone Blood Center now provides about 20% of Lehigh Valley Health Network’s blood products, an amount substantially less than it provided as the primary supplier.
"With the supplemental agreement we just initiated, they now represent about 5% of our total volume to all hospitals.”Peter Castagna, President & CEO, Miller-Keystone Blood Center
“We estimate that prior to July 1, we supplied over 95% of the blood to the LVHN system in total," Castagna said. "The new agreement has a minimum commitment of 20 percent of their volume with the American Red Cross providing 80 percent.
“Prior to LVHN’s decision, their volume represented a little over 20 percent of the blood we shipped to all hospitals. With the supplemental agreement we just initiated, they now represent about 5% of our total volume to all hospitals.”
Demand for other hospitals is up
Castagna said negotiations went “seamlessly” and the change has not had a negative impact on business.
A spokesperson for LVHN addressed the new contract in a statement saying, “We are looking forward to continuing our long-standing relationship with Miller-Keystone."
In spring, LVHN’s Executive Vice President Thomas Marchozzi, the network's chief financial officer, said the switch from Miller-Keystone to the American Red Cross as its primary blood supplier was a cost-saving measure.
The most recent agreement leaves room for Miller-Keystone to provide more than the 20% of blood products, should LVHN need it.
To make up for the lost business, Castagna said Miller-Keystone’s new fiscal year budget was approved with its inventory being distributed to other health care providers.
"Hospital demand for the remaining hospitals has been up, and that could be because of delayed surgeries from COVID," he said.
"It could just be because their volume is up, but like St. Luke's, Geisinger, Tower Health, their volume is all up, so we're able to meet that increased demand as well."
St. Luke's, other systems
St. Luke’s University Health Network is now on the receiving end of the largest volume of blood from Miller-Keystone, with other systems using smaller amounts.
The community blood center also began serving a few additional hospitals in the past year, including those in Pottstown and Phoenixville under its contract with Tower Health.
Miller-Keystone also is part of the Blood Emergency Readiness Corp., a group of 38 community blood centers that help support mass casualty events when it is overwhelming for the local center.
“There was no alert this weekend with the [Donald Trump] assassination attempt, which is a good thing, right?" Castagna said. "Because the blood center out of Pittsburgh is part of that organization.
"So those would be the types of events where you'll get those kinds of calls if there is an emergency.”
He said those types of locally based blood centers are imperative because they keep the blood in the area where it’s donated and can get blood products to local hospitals quickly, if need be.
