By TIM HAECK
KIRO Radio

You won't find a Snickers bar or a cup of chili in the newest vending machine at Bellevue's Overlake Hospital. It's a temperature-controlled HemoSafe machine that dispenses blood.

These computerized machines provided by the Puget Sound Blood Center release only the amount and type of blood needed by a specific patient.

"It talks to us and the Puget Sound Blood Center computer talks to it and it's very efficient," says Overlake Hospital's Andrea Nordmark.

Nordmark says the greatest advantage over the typical blood distribution system is patient safety.

"It picks the exact unit that it wants us to give [the patient] so then when we walk up to the refrigerator and we type in the patient's medical record number and ask for a unit of blood, it gives us one unit of blood for the patient. It only opens the door where that unit resides," explains Nordmark.

The HemoSafe machines store substantial amounts of all blood types. The traditional blood delivery and storage systems required hospitals to place orders for blood with delivery taking 30 minutes to an hour.

"We don't want to waste any blood, it's a precious resource," says Nordmark.

The Puget Sound Blood Center plans to install the blood vending machines in half-a-dozen hospitals in the coming months.

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