Palomar Hospital to Open Separate Blood Bank for N. County

The Palomar Pomerado Hospital District, dissatisfied with depending on blood trucked from an hour away in San Diego, will set up a North County blood bank in February.

The district’s board of directors made the decision Tuesday and hopes to enlist the cooperation of Tri-City Hospital in Oceanside, North County’s other major medical center. Palomar officials expect that a North County bank will attract new donors, who would be more likely to give blood to a community-based operation.

The announcement has angered officials of the San Diego Blood Bank in Hillcrest. Blood bank community relations officer Lynn Stedd said that its officials learned of the plan only from reporters and still have not been officially notified by Palomar. While the San Diego bank can do nothing to stop a new bank other than to appeal to Palomar for reconsideration, its officials do not understand the need for a competing entity, she said.

“I understand why the (San Diego) blood bank is disappointed to see another center open in the county,” said Dr. Jerry Kolins, assistant director of laboratories at Palomar and the medical director for the new blood bank. “But the real concern should be for patients in the entire county. The question is whether a second bank will increase the total blood supply countywide and whether it will cost less to do so.

“We think the answers are yes and it (the second bank) should be done.”

Currently, all blood donations in San Diego County are collected and processed by the San Diego Blood Bank, then distributed to hospitals based on need. About 23% of the blood donated is from North County, defined as any point north of Torrey Pines on the coast and north of Rancho Bernardo inland, Stedd said.

The blood bank maintains an inventory at each county hospital and can provide emergency supplies from its main storage areas in San Diego. The bank also maintains an extra supply at Tri-City, Stedd said, because the driving time to another North County hospital from Oceanside might be less than from San Diego in certain cases.

“We’ve never had any complaints about our service,” Stedd said.

But the lack of formal complaints does not indicate satisfaction with present arrangements, Kolins said.

Palomar has in the past requested that the blood bank store at the hospital special blood components needed in certain types of operations, because those surgeries and related procedures can proceed more efficiently with such supplies on hand, Kolins said.

With Palomar now a designated trauma center for inland North County--and with its first open-heart surgery scheduled for next year--the need for such supplies to be stored at the hospital has become more urgent, Kolins said.

“When our request was perceived as unnecessary even after we achieved the trauma designation, members of our medical staff became concerned,” Kolins said. “And it became clear that it would be easier to meet the needs of the staff, increase supplies and decrease the cost of the blood to patients with a center here.”

The North County center will consist of a donation center and processing lab in Escondido, a second donation center in the Oceanside area and a mobile unit. The estimated cost of setting up the bank is $310,000, Kolins said.

Even with those start-up costs, Kolins said, the North County bank can process blood cheaper than the $60-per-pint fee now charged in San Diego. The key will be a major recruitment effort by the new center to attract North County residents who have never given blood.

Kolins said the public will be encouraged initially to donate blood for themselves, family members or friends through a campaign emphasizing the safety factor for people to have their own blood--or the blood of friends--available in North County.

“It’s the safest blood of all to have, since there would be no chance at all for infectious complications, such as AIDS or other infections,” Kolins said. The chance of getting such infections through regular blood bank supplies is almost nil because of tests given on all donated blood, Kolins acknowledged. But the medical community must recognize the public’s fears of such infections and appeal to first-time donors on the basis of safety, he said.

“Sure, there are studies that show a community always has altruistic donors who support the community--and we expect to get more of those people as well who will identify with North County more closely,” Kolins said. “But we anticipate a lot of first-time donors who will give at first for themselves and then later come back a second or third time and donate for anyone.”

Kolins said that excess supplies collected in North County would be made available to the blood bank and other entities.

Tri-City’s directors will receive a staff report on the Palomar proposal at their meeting next week, Tri-City spokesman Mark Havel said Friday.

San Diego Blood Bank spokeswoman Stedd had no comment on whether the new blood bank would affect his organization economically. Both the existing and planned operations are nonprofit.

Stedd said that the blood bank would continue to collect its own supplies in North County at its Escondido location.

“People who live in that area don’t just go to a district hospital (such as Palomar), but might go elsewhere and might want to donate for all county facilities,” Stedd said. “We don’t want to take that convenience away.”