An internal investigation of complaints issued against the Blood Bank of Alaska reported no substantiated allegations from a complaint issued against the Blood Bank of Alaska in August.
The 23-page report on the board’s internal investigation described the August complaints to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which accused the Blood Bank of managerial misconduct and mismanagement of its finances and blood supply.
Bob Scanlon, Blood Bank CEO stated at a press conference Friday, November 18 that “We (the Blood Bank) are all about compliance. We’re all about transparency. We’re all about safety, purity and potency of the blood supply. We deal in minutia and detail every single day, and we want to fix problems.”
The allegations against the Blood Bank of Alaska were formulated by Linda Soriano, the Blood Bank’s former development director, and she stood by her claims on Friday. Soriano said she collaborated on the complaint with five current and former employees, who were not named.
Soriano, stated the BBA misrepresented its financial information, providing her with budget documents that inaccurately portrayed the Blood Bank’s financial picture as more rosy than it was. Soriano stated, “My whole complaint about finances stems from them lying on the budget about how much the (loan) payment was and projecting unrestricted gifts that were incredibly unrealistic.
The BBA appointed a committee of three board members to investigate the complaints. The committee’s report concluded that the Blood Bank had fully filled hospitals’ blood orders and its contract to send blood to California-based LifeStream was “consistent with both responsible blood management and BBA’s mission of service to the Alaskan community.”
Scanlon said he believed the complaint accusations stemmed from a “lack of knowledge” about the blood industry. “We’re talking about a grant writer stating what the best process for managing inventory is,” he said.
The Blood Bank declined to provide a copy of its 2016 budget.