Indiana Blood Center

Indianapolis-based Blood Center (IBC) supplies and tests blood and blood products for 48 member hospitals in and around Indiana. With over 400 full time employees processing 137,000 units of blood annually, IBC is among the larger regional members of America's Blood Centers, a group that is responsible for maintaining about 50% of our nation's blood supply: the American Red Cross is responsible for the other 50%. IBC is a non-profit organization funded by sales of blood and testing services.

Soon after her arrival at IBC in 1999, Kathie Cunningham decided that improving the Center's Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) was among her priorities. As IBC's Director of Quality Assurance, Kathie plays a key role in maintaining the integrity and safety of her region's blood supply. She is responsible for ensuring that IBC's blood handling and testing is in compliance with regulatory standards and guidance. A medical technologist with a specialist's certificate in blood banking, Kathie has also earned an MBA and is a Certified Quality Auditor.

"It's my job to make certain that staff have the tools necessary to follow procedures," Kathie told us. "We consider any written document to be a tool for staff to use. I'm concerned with making sure that documents meet the requirements of the regulatory agencies and can be followed by our staff."

SOPs were effecting performance and compliance
Like all blood centers, IBC adheres to SOPs designed to ensure the integrity of the blood supply. IBC is subject to constant scrutiny by regulatory agencies, and audits of their SOPs are frequent.

Kathie's examination of the organization's SOPs revealed that they were cumbersome, wordy, and not directed towards users. Users were often unable to follow them but were reluctant to ask questions. Training was taking too long, and employees spent excessive amounts of time in rework. Kathie believed that well written SOP's could help IBC to improve efficiency and ensure the continuing safety of the blood supply.

"Too often, organizations consider their audience to be the regulatory agencies, instead of the employees using the documentation," Kathie said. "They forget that they're writing many of these SOPs for phlebotomists, production technicians and material handlers, people who may have only a high school education, or perhaps an associate's degree. These employees need to be able to do precise work from these instructions."

How IMI Helped

Kathie was introduced to Information Mapping's method at an American Association of Blood Banks meeting, where she attended a workshop given by Information Mapping instructor/consultant Luci Berte. The workshop and subsequent conversations with Luci convinced Kathie that Information Mapping could help IBC improve the quality of their SOPs.

In 2002, Information Mapping, Inc. provided training for a group of 20 IBC managers in the Information Mapping class, Mapping Operating Procedures™. These managers, functioning as subject matter experts and authors, applied their Mapping skills to revising the organization's SOPs. The results from this effort have been outstanding.

Kathie told us, "Although we're only a year into what's expected be a seven year project, it's clear that we're on the right track. Our audience loves the Mapped documents. And they're definitely relying on the documentation more because we've made it more user-friendly. Error rates are down, and training takes significantly less time. It's hard to measure the outcomes formally because there have been so many changes in other things, too, like systems and technologies. However, there's no question that Information Mapping has benefited us greatly."

"Blood centers, hospitals and laboratories would find this very helpful."

Now that the quality of the SOPs has been improved, Kathie is considering a future Mapping project: a revision of IBC's Employee Handbook.

When asked whether she would recommend that other blood centers look into Information Mapping, Kathie responded, "Of course. Blood centers, hospital blood banks and clinical laboratories would certainly find Information Mapping to be very helpful. They've begun to hear about our success with the method. In fact, we've been asked to speak at conferences about how to plan for implementing Information Mapping."