Optimizing blood assignment in a donation–transfusion system

A multi-product, multi-period, multi-objective linear programming model has been built as a contribution to good management of a blood donation-transfusion system in order to determine the best assignment of blood resources to demand, which minimizes the quantity of blood imported from outside the system and stabilizes the quantities assigned daily. The model has been applied to the Italian Red Cross blood donation–transfusion system in Rome and to each hospital belonging to such a system, producing interesting results.