In 2022, Blood Centers of America (BCA) formed a strategic partnership with the American Association of Tissue Banks (AATB) as their preferred Group Purchasing Program, providing value to its accredited institutional and affiliate members via aggregated purchasing power and critical supply management services. Leveraging $1B annual supplier contract spend, BCA is able to negotiate the most sought-after supplier contracts, delivering significant cost savings and increased revenue via contract rebates and incentives to its members. Every tissue bank and organ procurement organization now has the opportunity to participate in BCA’s Group Purchasing Program. The robust BCA portfolio includes over 500 supplier agreements within multiple categories of products/services, administered by dedicated BCA staff to ensure maximum savings to their member establishments.

Bill Block, BCA CEO, noted that: “Tissue Banks, such as AATB members, are an essential part of the health care system in the US. BCA is proud to bring our knowledge of contract negotiation and supply chain risk mitigation to help further their critical missions.”

Marc Pearce, AATB CEO, said: “The AATB and BCA partnership will combine the purchasing power of blood and tissue banks, reducing costs and enhancing supply chain efficiencies for all our members.”

The following are some of the Suppliers partnered with BCA to deliver significant savings and benefits:

• Abbott (lab reagents & equipment)
• Accellix (Flow Cytometry)
• Ansell (exam, surgical, cut resistant gloves & liners)
• BD BacTec (bacterial testing)
• Becton Dickinson (BD) (vacutainer tubes/lab supplies)
• BioRad (lab reagents/instrumentation)
• Calimex (IT solutions)
• Cintas (uniform and facility services)
• Data2 Corporation (standard/custom labels)
• Esprigas (medical gases/dry ice)
• Fisher Healthcare (lab distribution)
• Ford (fleet vehicle purchases)
• General Motors Company (fleet vehicle purchases)
• HemaSource (distribution services)
• Henry Schein, Inc. (medical/surgical products distribution)
• Hettich (centrifuges & cold storage)
• Immucor (lab reagents/instrumentation)
• MaxQ Research (cold transport solutions)
• Medline Industries, Inc. (medical/surgical products distribution)
• MNX (Midnight Air Corp) (next flight out services)
• Old Seville Expense Reduction (waste services savings management)
• OptiFreight Logistics (Fedex program management)
• QuidelOrtho (lab reagents/instrumentation)
• Provista/Vizient (national GPO services & contract portfolio access)
• PharmaWatch (cold temperature monitoring)
• Quotient (lab reagents)
• Roche Diagnostics (lab reagents)
• Southwest Solutions Group (mobile carts)
• Staples  (office supplies/furniture)
• Sysmex (lab reagents/instrumentation)
• Thermo Fisher (lab equipment)
• UPS/UPS Express Critical
• Vyv (antimicrobial lighting solutions)

If your tissue bank or organ procurement organization is interested in accessing the many benefits of BCA membership, please contact Whit Harvey, Director of Supply Chain Contracting, at wharvey@bca.coop