Emergency preparedness on a national level: Israel's three‐pronged approach to collecting and supplying blood during times of crisis

Disaster preparedness on a national scale for the provision of blood products during an emergency requires a multifaceted approach. In Israel, the national blood collector, Magen David Adom (MDA), is responsible for collecting, testing and distributing blood products to hospitals and the Israeli Defense Force (IDF). Through close collaboration between MDA and the IDF, blood products have been a mainstay in the prehospital resuscitation of injured soldiers and civilians for several years. Injured soldiers and civilians are taken to the same hospitals; there is not a differentiation between military and civilian hospitals in Israel, which poses its own challenges when stocking blood during peace times and when scaling up operations during times of emergency. This review will examine the approaches to collecting, distributing and administering blood during disasters in Israel from these three perspectives-the national blood supplier, the IDF and a trauma hospital-and highlight some of the unique challenges faced during these circumstances.