(Nationwide) – For just the second time in its history, the American Red Cross has declared a national blood supply crisis after donations fell to a four-year summer low. January 2022 is the only other time that the Red Cross declared a national blood crisis. But this summer’s elevated demand and persistent collections challenges have still pushed the national blood supply to crisis levels. “The Red Cross takes its responsibility as the nation’s largest single provider of blood products incredibly seriously and has worked tirelessly to strengthen the blood supply for our hospital partners,” said Chris Hrouda, president of Red Cross Biomedical Services. “Following our first-ever national blood crisis in 2022, we put additional safeguards in place to help prevent a crisis like that from happening again.