An integrated framework for at-home blood collection

Blood Donation Supply Chains (BDSCs) are one of the most critical components of health care systems. According to a recent study, the 2017 global need for blood was estimated to be 300 million units, whereas the collection rate was only around 270 millions. Providing a sufficient supply of blood has always been a global challenge, as blood can only be produced from human donors. The COVID-19 pandemic has worsened this issue, and shortages have dramatically increased. According to the Italian National Blood Center, the production of red blood cells in April 2020 was reduced by 36.4%, compared to the one of April 2019. To increase donations and decrease shortages, in this work we are considering an integrated framework to collect blood at the donors’ homes, rather than in donation centers. To successfully achieve this, we linked the Blood Donation Appointment Scheduling (BDAS) and the Multi-Trip Vehicle Routing Problem with Time Windows (MTVRP-TW) problems. This framework consists of three planning phases. First, possible time slots for donor appointments are created, with the aim of balancing the production of the different blood types. These slots are then turned into real appointments, according to the received booking requests. Finally, a fleet of vehicles is organized o collect blood from the donors’ homes, at the predefined donation day and time. The proposed framework has been tested and validated with the data obtained from an Italian blood collection center.