The development of a pilot blood management program at the United States Military Academy

Each year in the early fall and spring, a blood drive is held by the Greater New York Area Red Cross at the United States Military Academy (USMA) at West Point. This unique project was approached in two stages, with the purpose of treating the target population as a blood donor resource. The first stage of the project was testing a representative sample of the O-Negative Corps population for Rh minor phenotypes. The second stage of the project, to develop a pilot model for a management system of blood resources at USMA, was based on information collated in the first stage.