Blood Bank of Delmarva Takes on a New Project Amid COVID Chaos
The COVID-19 pandemic has had far reaching consequences for many of our Nation’s businesses; blood banking notwithstanding. Furloughs and school closures have devastated our mobile operations. Stay at home orders have fewer donors coming into fixed sites. And near-daily rule and regulation changes regarding collections has us all reeling.
While many centers are trying to simply get through each day, Blood Bank of Delmarva (BBD) chose to double down and add a new project to their already hectic schedules; BloodHub Logistics. So often we hear that teams can’t take on any new projects, they have too much going on, or they simply don’t have time. So I asked the team at BBD how they made the decision in April, right at the start of the pandemic, to add a large scale project.
The BBD team told us that they understand that everyone is always busy, and rarely is there a “good time” for adding to our workload, but when you have vision and can see the benefits, it’s always worth the effort.
BBD not only made the decision to implement BloodHub Logistics, they completed the project and went live in under 90 days as a result of exceptional project management and collaboration.
Kate Blevins, BBD Supervisor of Logistics, told us that the implementation went “very smoothly” and “the training and documentation provided was spot on and easy to follow.”
With just over a month live on BloodHub Logistics, the BBD team is already seeing big benefits. Kate explained, “since going live with BloodHub Logistics, we are better able to regulate when and how we are making deliveries and pick-ups. Before, we were going at it blindly, depending on the drivers to communicate when they would arrive at a destination, or having to call them on their cell phones while driving to find out an ETA or to tell them about a pick up. Now we just go to the map, and look at the estimated arrival time or send them the pick up directly through the software, making everything much more efficient and safe for the drivers.”
BloodHub Logistics provides a single map view of all deliveries, returns, sample pickups, blood drive pickups, and even equipment mobilization. This single map view empowers the blood centers distribution team to make routing decisions based on the day’s activity instead of adding costly one-off trips or third party drivers.
We also asked Kate about the efficiency gains thus far and she told us, “we can now better gauge the need for an outside courier, we can see when the driver will be back and plan for their next trip. Also, because we have the ability to assign pick-ups at the time of dispatching a trip, our drivers can be prepared with the proper packaging materials before he/she leaves the center.” She added “the drivers love being able to utilize the maps feature directly from the app and getting directions with the press of a button without having to manually enter the address themselves.”
Today everything feels important and making time for something new seems to be the easiest “excuse” we hear for not pursuing new projects, but visionary leaders know that proper project management can get new projects completed during busy times and ultimately save your staff time and save you money.
Congratulations to Kate and the entire team at BBD on a successful implementation. We are thrilled to partner with you!
About BloodHub Logistics: BloodHub Logistics offers intelligent routing-logic that balances distance, time, cost, online transparency, and accountability. BloodHub Logistics allows blood suppliers to consolidate all deliveries, pickups, returns, and transfers into a single map that communicates with a streamlined app to drive efficiency.
To learn more visit www.bloodhub.com, email Billie@BloodHub.com, or call 330-685-0588