Wayne Hills Hospital in tiny Wayne, Nebraska, faces a problem common to large, urban hospitals as well as to small, remote ones like itself. That problem is deciding how much of each type of whole blood to keep in stock. Because blood is expensive and has a limited shelf life $($up to $5$ weeks under $1-6\backslash$deg C refrigeration$),$ Wayne Hills naturally wants to keep its stock as low as possible. Unfortunately, past disasters such as a major tornado and a train wreck demonstrated that lives would be lost when not enough blood was available to handle massive needs. The hospital administrator wants to set an $85\%$ service level based on demand over the past decade. Discuss the implications of this decision. What is the hospital's responsibility with regard to stocking lifesaving medicines with short shelf lives? How would you set the inventory level for a commodity such as blood? This dilemma also brings up the current issues surrounding COVID $19,$ blood supply $($especially in Tennessee$)$ is at an extremely critical level. While medical issues with COVID $19$ may not require blood transfusions, people are not donating with all of the quarantines and social distancing in place. This leaves hospitals at risk of not having enough blood supply on hand for treating other patients that are not COVID $19$ related and require blood during any surgeries. What do you think could be done in this situation to have blood supply on hand if needed?