National Healthcare Organization

CHALLENGE: Canadian Blood Services (CBS) is a national blood service whose mission is to provide a safe, secure, cost effective, affordable and accessible blood supply. In addition to its better-known role in the management of the nation's blood supply, CBS is also responsible for supply chain management of plasma-derived products that circulate through the body, support the immune system, and promote the control of excessive bleeding. CBS realized that, despite the growth of its plasma protein products business, its method of managing production and distribution was outdated.

RESULTS: CBS decided to formulate its five-year plasma protein strategy largely through a broad-based consultation using Syntegration. By bringing together a carefully selected variety of participants, CBS felt confident that it could convene people with the right knowledge, expertise and influence to produce the right strategy. The 3-day Syntegration led to an unexpected and dramatic reversal of one of CBS' key tenets: plasma self sufficiency. For more than 25 years, Canada's health ministers and CBS assumed that the country should be self sufficient in plasma collection. The new plasma strategy received broad approval from its board of directors. Representatives from key stakeholder groups - patient and donor groups, doctors, hospitals, suppliers, distributors, collectors, funders, regulators, and all levels and functions internally - had a direct hand in building the strategy, understood it and endorsed it.

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