Hospitals switch blood contracts from Red Cross to LifeSouth

DECATUR, ALABAMA - A dozen North Alabama hospitals have decided they will not renew Red Cross contracts for blood purchases due to price increases. <br> <br> Administrators from the hospitals say they plan to purchase blood from the LifeSouth Community Blood Centers as Red Cross contracts expire later this year. <br> <br> LifeSouth now operates 12 regional centers in Alabama, Florida and Georgia. LifeSouth operates similarly to Red Cross and does not pay for blood donations. <br> <br> A company official says it supplies some or all of the blood in Birmingham, Auburn/Opelika and Montgomery. UAB Hospital gets 70 percent of its blood from LifeSouth. <br> <br> Doug Sills - chief operating officer of Parkway - one of the hospitals making the change, says the move does not reflect poorly on the Red Cross or the quality of its blood products. <br> <br> Sills said Wednesday that it was a purely financial decision. <br> <br> The increase from Red Cross would cost North Alabama hospitals $2.5 million more this year. <br> <br> Red Cross spokesman Mark Beddingfield of Birmingham says he has NO idea how LifeSouth can supply blood cheaper than Red Cross. <br> <br> &#34;We charge hospitals what it costs us to process it,&#34; Beddingfield said.