Creative Testing Solutions

“CREATIVE TESTING SOLUTIONS HAS FOUR NONPROFIT CORPORATE MEMBERS: BLOOD SYSTEMS, INC., THE INSTITUTE FOR TRANSFUSION MEDICINE ("ITxM"), PUGET SOUND BLOOD CENTER ("PSBC") AND ONEBLOOD, INC.”

“The board of directors consists of no less than 11 and no more than 17 directors appointed by the members (blood systems, inc., the institute for transfusion medicine, oneblood, inc., and puget sound blood center). Blood systems, inc. Shall be entitled to designate a majority of the number of directors at all times.”

“CERTAIN ACTIONS AND DECISIONS OF THE CORPORATION REQUIRE PRIOR UNANIMOUS APPROVAL FROM EACH OF THE FOUR MEMBERS (BLOOD SYSTEMS, INC., ITxM, PUGET SOUND BLOOD CENTER, AND ONEBLOOD, INC.) PER THE BYLAWS.”

“The form 990 is prepared by an outside accounting firm based on information provided by the cfo and the finance team. A copy of the draft form 990 and schedules is supplied to all board members prior to the meeting held to accept the returns. Members of management review the form 990 with the board and are available for answering questions. Any comments from the board are considered prior to filing the form 990 with the irs.”

“Each year, the board of directors and senior management are required to sign and return a conflict of interest form to company counsel. Any conflicts disclosed are discussed in executive session with the board and resolved. In addition, in preparation for the form 990 filing, the directors, officers and key employees identified are required to respond to a comprehensive conflict of interest and family relationship questionnaire. Any conflicts disclosed are discussed with the board and disclosed appropriately on the form 990.”

“Blood systems, inc. (bsi) maintains the records of creative testing solutions (cts). Since cts maintains no records, it has not adopted a document retention and destruction policy itself. Instead cts records are maintained under the document retention and destruction policy of bsi.”

“Creative testing solution relies on the methods used by bsi in establishing compensation paid to the president including: compensation committee, independent compensation consultant, compensation survey or study, and approval by the board or compensation committee of creative testing solutions.”

“The form 990 is made available on the company's intra-net for all operating locations to access. Upon request, the form can be printed or viewed on-line. Upon written request to the chief financial officer, a copy of the form 990 will be mailed to the requestor. The governing documents and conflict of interest policy are not made available to the public. The organization's combined financial statements are made public via the annual report posted on the blood systems' website.”

“4a) donor testing blood donor testing services provided by creative testing solutions are essential to ensuring the safety of the nation's blood supply. These testing activities are absolutely necessary and mandated by the united states food and drug administration ("fda") to provide a safe blood product for transfusion to patients. Due to the significant health risks associated with the use of human blood and blood components, it is critical for public safety purposes that blood be properly tested before being introduced into the healthcare system for use by patients. A safe blood supply is critical to the well-being of the nation's healthcare system and its patients. The significance of the testing of blood for public safety is even more pronounced in this age of threats from pandemics and terrorism. Creative testing solutions has four donor testing laboratories (dtl). Our first established laboratory is in tempe, arizona. The additional laboratories are located in bedford, texas; rosemont, illinois; and st. Petersburg, florida. These locations are strategically positioned near major airports in phoenix, dallas, chicago and tampa. All four dtl laboratories are food and drug administration (fda) registered facilities and hold current certifications for the clinical laboratory improvement act (clia) as well as accreditation with the american association of blood banks (aabb), the new york state department of health, california department of health services and state of florida agency for health care administration. In addition to donor specimen testing, the laboratories participate in clinical evaluation of reagents, test kits, and equipment. Cts provides the highest quality in testing and service. The laboratories maintain internal quality control programs and participate voluntarily in external quality control programs. Blood specimens are processed utilizing state of the art technology with fda licensed test kits and reagents. All laboratories are equipped with multiple and redundant instruments required for routine processing. Additionally, each facility acts as a backup laboratory to the other three labs. Special testing our special testing laboratories in the phoenix and tampa areas perform confirmatory and supplemental testing of donor samples as well as non-donation testing such as donor re-entry, post exposure and donor follow-up. We also provide testing for eye banks, tissue banks and cord blood centers. The special testing laboratory also complies with clia, fda, ca, ny, md, and fl state regulations. Component quality control our component quality control laboratory in phoenix provides blood component quality control testing. Residual white blood cell (rwbc) counts are performed on leukoreduced products. Factor viii and fibrinogen assays are performed on cryoprecipitate and plasma products. Bacterial detection is performed on apheresis platelets. 4b) research and development the cts research program focuses on the development and/or evaluation of new blood donor screening technologies which significantly improve and promote blood safety in the areas of infectious disease, immunology, molecular diagnostics, and epidemiology. Additionally, the cts research program serves as the focus for a multi-institutional consortium which integrates data from approximately 35% of the us blood supply for the purpose of driving the evaluation of best practices in transfusion medicine, the promotion of donor health, and the improvement of transfusion recipient outcomes.”