Hospitals Brace for Strike at Red Cross Blood Banks

As nurses and technicians who work for Red Cross blood banks in Los Angeles and Orange counties prepared for a strike to begin today, hospitals scrambled to develop alternative sources of blood.

The Red Cross provides 450,000 units of blood each year to an estimated 200 hospitals in the two counties--90% of the annual supply, according to Red Cross spokeswoman Gerry Sohle.

Spokesmen for various hospitals differed in their opinions of how serious a problem a strike would create in the short term but generally agreed a long strike could create serious difficulties.

Teresa Conrow, a spokeswoman for Local 535 of the Service Employees International Union, which represents 225 Red Cross nurses and technicians, said the employees are prepared to strike because the union and agency are far apart on several important issues in negotiations. The union is seeking a 7% wage increase and an increase in staffing that would reduce the ratio of patients to nurses.

Top-scale registered nurses at Red Cross earn $26,942 annually, and licensed vocational nurses earn $18,840. Conrow said the vocational nurses’ pay should be raised close to that of the registered nurses because they do “essentially the same work” at the blood banks.

On Tuesday night, the nurses voted by a 6-1 margin to strike today if a satisfactory contract has not been reached. Their former contract expired at midnight Tuesday.

The two sides resumed negotiations Wednesday afternoon at the behest of federal mediator Frank Allen.

Ralph Wright, a spokesman for the Los Angeles-Orange County Red Cross Regional Blood Program, said that if the nurses and technicians strike, the center plans to use administrative personnel who have been trained in the procedures performed by the striking personnel. He said the blood supply “is in excess of 100% of desirable levels” for all blood types.

The center collects and processes about 1,500 units of blood a day at its nine permanent stations in the two counties and from mobile units that visit about 28 locations daily. In addition, according to Wright, about 10% of the blood comes from cities as far away as the East Coast.

Potential blood donors also could be directed to nearby hospitals that accept blood.

Hospital officials said they would reduce elective surgeries and recruit blood donations from staff members and relatives of patients to make up any shortage. The hospital officials said they have not been informed by Red Cross whether the blood supply will be maintained.

“Just because nurses go on strike doesn’t mean there will be no blood, but we do expect a marked decrease in the amount we usually obtain from Red Cross,” said Dr. Arnold Abrams, medical director of the blood bank at St. John’s Hospital in Santa Monica. “We are already running at the borderline of what is an acceptable supply for us.”

Abrams expressed skepticism about the Red Cross finding enough personnel to do the work usually done by the nurses.

Dr. William Kern, director of pathology at the Hospital of the Good Samaritan, said the hospital’s large blood needs could be met for only a day or two, although on Wednesday there were 235 units in the blood bank.

A problem could arise, he said, if 20 or 30 units of a particular type of blood were needed in the emergency room or operating room. To lessen the chances of that, Kern said, the hospital would reduce the number of surgeries “almost at once.”

At County-USC Medical Center, the biggest single user of Red Cross blood in the two counties, Dr. Janice Nelson, associate medical director of the blood bank, said, “We are not panicked, but we are very concerned about a shortage.”

She said the hospital had previously scheduled an employee blood donation program next week that is expected to help meet needs.

Most Orange County hospitals would feel an almost immediate effect if there is a strike, hospital administrators said yesterday. “A strike would be a disaster. . . . Disaster would be an understatement,” said Tom Bouse, chief technologist for the 175-bed Saddleback Community Hospital. “We rely 100% on the Red Cross for our blood.”

Times staff writer Sandra Crockett contributed to this story from Orange County.