Vitalant reliably gets life-saving blood donations to patients with the help of Surface devices

Ten years ago, a blood transfusion helped save Marci’s life after a hemorrhage during her son’s birth. As a donor herself and an OB-GYN who has used donated blood to care for her patients, she has a unique perspective on this kind of generosity. “Blood donors and blood donation allow me to be there for birthdays, first days of school, home runs, gold medals at swim meets, and all of the things that are yet to come,” she says. 

The US blood and biotherapies nonprofit Vitalant provides about 11 percent of the nation’s donated blood, platelets, and plasma for transfusion. These critical blood components are used in routine medical procedures, trauma events, cancer therapies, and more. “Blood and blood services are the backbone of our healthcare infrastructure,” says Nick Gehrig, Senior Director of Communications at Vitalant. “We create an environment where generous individuals can give their blood and help save patients’ lives, making a profound difference.”

To find efficiencies and fine-tune the IT foundation of their crucial work, Vitalant is upgrading their laptops to Microsoft Surface Devices for nearly all of their 4,000 staff nationwide over three years. The standardization—alongside integration with their use of Microsoft Azure, Microsoft 365, and security solutions—is helping Vitalant reliably provide hospitals with the blood patients need.

Processing life-saving donations more effectively

Someone needs blood or platelets every two seconds in the US. “Keeping blood products on the shelves, where and when people need it, is a 24/7/365 operation,” Gehrig says. Rolling out Surface Go tablets has made the donation process more efficient. The nonprofit used to provide one laptop per donor station, but now Donor Care staff use one Surface Go while tending to two donors at the same time. The devices have no problem switching back and forth between profiles on the nonprofit’s donor management software, and they connect to wireless scanners via Bluetooth. 

Smoother blood drive operations through the portable devices provide a better experience for donors, making donors more likely to donate again. Buying half as many devices for drives also cuts down on hardware spend so Vitalant can continue to steward its nonprofit budget as effectively as possible in delivering its lifesaving mission. 

Administrative and medical staff alike appreciate the familiarity of the Microsoft interface, as well as how it seamlessly integrates with their Microsoft 365 apps. “It’s much better for everyone because it’s all Microsoft. They only have to learn one tablet, one unified ecosystem,” says Van De’Reche, Supervisor of Desktop Service at Vitalant. 

The same goes for IT staff, who now support just one device and one platform. “As Vitalant continues to mature as a technology-forward organization, switching to the Microsoft Surface platform centralizes support more than ever,” says Eric Champignon, Director of Infrastructure and Operations at Vitalant. “From hardware and software to backend architecture, using Surface allows for more efficient support to our nationwide enterprise.”

Efficiencies can translate to more blood and blood products getting to the patients who need them, Gehrig says. “There’s never a day off from working in communities to inspire people to show up and give blood, then processing, testing, and distributing those donations so they can save patient lives. Technology is an important part of enabling efficiency and predictability in our operations.” 

Supporting the nation’s blood supply, securely and reliably

To provide safe blood products for hospitals, Vitalant manages information that is necessary for patient safety. The nonprofit’s enterprise-to-endpoint security practices protect donor information to comply with stringent requirements. “All the Microsoft tools in a unified ecosystem makes security so much easier to monitor,” says Perry Rawley, Director of Datacenter and Security Operations at Vitalant.

Around-the-clock monitoring via Microsoft Defender alerts Vitalant security experts of suspicious sign-ins, traffic, or behavior. “Having everything in one central location helps us react faster,” says Ronald Buehler, Desktop Supervisor at Vitalant. 

Vitalant customizes permissions and policies for staff, then monitors adherence via Microsoft Intune. The cloud-based endpoint management solution is flexible enough to provide access to the apps and tools people need to get their job done while providing the transparency IT staff need to minimize risk. For example, they can apply stricter policies when a device is connected to Wi-Fi than when it operates from a local area network (LAN).

From an endpoint perspective, the Windows security feature BitLocker encrypts data on Surface devices. IT staff can lock machines to prevent unauthorized access and wipe a device that is lost, stolen, or compromised. Exchange Online Protection filters, scans, and encrypts messages to help protect Vitalant from bad actors attempting to infiltrate the organization via phishing, malware, spam, and other email-based threats. 

The constant uptime, plus the durability and longer lifespan of Surface devices, make Vitalant more reliable than ever. “We make commitments to hospitals that we’ll have the right blood products and blood types on the shelves when they need it,” Gehrig says. “The reliability that technology provides is extremely important to both patient care and our identity as a reputable, respected, and trusted organization.”

Working anywhere blood is needed

Vitalant works in 28 states coast to coast, running about 60,000 community blood drives every year and collecting blood at about 115 donation centers. “If staff don’t have equipment in hand, they can’t collect blood donations,” Buehler says. To ensure blood drives run as scheduled, the nonprofit now deploys Surface devices across the country faster than ever. 

It used to take days or even longer than a week to order a device, receive and unpack it, use IT staff to set it up with software, then ship it to the location in need. Intune and Autopilot cut out most of that wait time as well as personnel hours and shipping costs. “Now devices get provisioned automatically with Microsoft Windows Autopilot. We can get that device into someone’s hands, ready to be used, in a lot less time and with a lot less effort,” Buehler explains. 

“We’re able to implement security policies on our endpoints, especially in our mobile drives, because of Microsoft security tools,” Rawley says. Intune enables the IT team to monitor activity, deploy patches, and ensure adherence to IT policies on Surfaces, even when devices are not connected to an office LAN or VPN. Maintaining control keeps devices—and donor information—secure, no matter where people donate.

Vitalant nurses use Surface Go tablets while providing blood therapy treatments in hospitals. Some buildings have unreliable Wi-Fi, so nurses activate the LTE wireless broadband in their Surface devices to remain connected to must-know patient information. They also capture doctor and patient signatures directly on the Surface touchscreen. “Surface tablets help nurses be more mobile so they can do their job,” De’Reche says. 

Microsoft hardware and services help Vitalant to go wherever patients need them, Gehrig says. “We’re focused on how we can best serve patients both today and in the future. Effective technology puts us in the best position to grow and innovate.”

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