AM24-SN-05-O: Ensuring Blood Availability for Mass Casualty Events (Enduring)

Until recently, there was no coordinated effort to ensure blood would be available in times of mass casualty events. Session will review some of the larger events in recent history, along with blood needs, explain how a group of seven community blood centers of came together to create a reserve for such events, and detail how the group has grown to now 36 blood centers across the U.S. and has been successful in supply emergency blood products for more recent events. To date, the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC) program has supported blood product needs following the 2021 Collierville Kroger shooting (Collierville, TN), the 2021 Oxford High School shooting (Oxford Township, MI), the Tornado outbreak of December 10–11, 2021, the Robb Elementary School Shooting (Uvalde, TX) on May 14, 2022, the tornado outbreak sequence primarily impacting Perrytown, TX in the Texas Panhandle on June 15, 2023, and the North Texas tornado outbreak (Cooke, Collin and Denton counties) on May 26, 2024. Session will show examples of how blood centers have utilized the program to better partner with their local first responder groups and other governmental agencies, and will also demonstrate the program's ability to strengthen donor recruitment efforts which in turn leads to a more robust blood supply.