Management of Products Consumption in Blood Supply Chain Considering Lateral Transshipment between Hospitals

There are issues such as limitation of blood resources, perishability, special preservation conditions of blood products and high wastage and shortage costs of blood products, make management of blood products consumption as one of the most complex issues in healthcare systems. This paper proposes a linear mathematical model to optimize consumption of the blood products in hospitals. In the proposed model, in addition to distribution of blood products between hospitals by blood center, possibility of lateral transshipments between hospitals considered as a strategy to deal with demand uncertainty. Furthermore, factor of blood freshness and the need of some surgeries for fresh blood considered in this model as real conditions. Finally, to validate the proposed model, a case related to one blood center and eight hospitals in Tehran city presented and its results discussed .