IT outage caused drop in blood donations in the Northwest

An unexpected effect of last week’s global IT outage: fewer blood donations.

Blood banks in the Northwest are in critically low supply, in part because of the recent CrowdStrike outage that led to scheduling issues and delayed shipments, the Washington State Department of Health said Thursday.

The department put out a call for donations in Washington, Oregon and Idaho, especially for type O blood, which makes up 38% of the population but is currently “dangerously low.”

“Your community needs you,” Dr. Kirsten Alcorn, co-chief medical officer at Bloodworks Northwest, said in a statement. “As a blood donor, you’ve already made a huge, lifesaving impact.”

https://washingtonstatestandard.com/briefs/it-outage-caused-drop-in-blood-donations-in-the-northwest/