Identifying and ranking the risks of the blood supply chainin the conditions of the corona virus pandemic

Identifying blood supply chain risks can be effective to avoid failures that may affect the entire supply chain. The purpose of this research is to identify and rank the risks affecting the blood supply chain in the Corona virus pandemic.

In this study, 37 risks were identified based on the background of the research and interviews with 7 experts who had management positions in blood centers. Then, by distributing a researcher-made questionnaire among 113 employees of blood centers, the probability of occurrence and the severity of the impact of risks on the variables and value of each risk were calculated, and 21 critical risks were selected by using the risk matrix. Finally, the risks were weighted and ranked by pairwise comparison method using Expert Choice 11 software.

The results showed that the level of blood collection with a weight of 0.417 bears the highest risk in the blood supply chain. Risks of blood collection planning error (weight = 0.192), failure to comply with safety during blood donation (weight = 0.124), inaccurate information and creating false excitement (weight = 0.09), planning error demand (weight = 0.072) and blood shortage (weight = 0.072) ranked first to fifth.

Conclusions  :

The level of blood collection and as a result the amount of bloodstock bears the greatest risk in the corona pandemic, which can be largely avoided by planning for appropriate information sharing and preventing the creation of false emotions. This can greatly reduce negative effects on the blood supply chain.