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BACKGROUND O‐negative red blood cells (ON‐RBC) are a precious resource and the international blood banking community has become increasingly concerned with its inappropriate utilization. AABB recently made several recommendations to address the issue. Solutions must be multifaceted and involve donor centers, blood banks, and clinical departments. From the perspective of a hospital blood bank, it is difficult to rely solely on increased donor recruitment and ubiquitous blood typing of the entire in‐patient population. We therefore focused on interventions within the blood bank to optimize inventory and policies to ensure appropriate ON‐RBC utilization. STUDY DESIGN AND METHODS Transfusion data over one year was examined for the rate of out‐of‐group/inappropriate ON‐RBC. Furthermore, we assessed whether that rate was related to product life on the day of transfusion. We also examined our stock inventory levels and how excess inventory can contribute to inappropriate ON‐RBC usage. RESULTS The ON‐RBC inventory level was decreased in order to reduce the rate of inappropriate transfusions while maintaining a safe level for optimal patient care. Compared to baseline, our intervention caused ON‐RBCs to be transfused earlier in their shelf‐life (9.27 vs. 11.15 days from expiration [DFE], p = 0.0012). This reduced the overall rate of inappropriate ON‐RBC transfusions (67% vs. 54%, p = 0.0035), approximating 185 units of ON‐RBC saved over the course of 6 months. CONCLUSIONS A data‐driven approach to optimize stock inventory levels is widely applicable; it can be adopted by numerous institutions to improve utilization and establish a benchmark for the broader blood banking community.

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This study compares the perceptions of two groups of West Virginia school principals through a survey instrument built in alignment with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium (ISLLC) standards. The perceptions of principals affiliated with Professional Development Schools (PDS) are compared to the perceptions of principals who are not affiliated with Professional Development Schools (non-PDS). The 587 principals in the state of West Virginia with active e-mail addresses were asked to participate in an online survey. The survey instrument contained six domains with 31 items aligned with the Interstate School Leaders Licensure Consortium's (ISLLC) six national standards on leadership. Two hundred forty-nine principals responded for a return rate of 43.3%. The treatment group (PDS) had 117 principals that responded, and the comparison group (non-PDS) had 132 principals that responded. Only one statistically significant event (as determined by a t-test) occurred within the survey's 31 items. The statistically significant difference was found in Domain 2 (Advocating): Item 2 (collaboration).