Streamlining a blood center and hospital transfusion service supply chain with an informatics vendor-managed inventory solution: development, implementation, and 3-month follow-up.

Background: The ordering process at Stanford Health Care involved twice-daily shipments predicated upon current stock levels from the blood center to the hospital transfusion service. Manual census determination is time consuming and error prone. We aimed to enhance inventory management by developing an informatics platform to streamline the ordering process and reallocate staff productivity.