Today, we reported organic revenue growth of 6% and adjusted earnings per share of $0.50, up $0.04 or 9% compared with the first quarter of the prior year.
Chad is a business builder who has been an integral part of Haemonetics for 12 years.
Our goal was to achieve $80 million to $90 million in gross savings by the end of fiscal '23.
I am proud to share that despite the headwinds in the past two years, we are planning to meet our savings target and save an additional $35 million by extending this program through the end of fiscal '25.
Plasma revenue increased 6% in the quarter as the pandemic and the associated government subsidies continued to have a pronounced effect on the U.S. source plasma donor pool.
North America disposables revenue increased 3% in the quarter driven by improvement in collections volume partially offset by price adjustments including the expiration of fixed term pricing on a historical PCS2 technology enhancement.
Sequentially, U.S. source plasma collection volumes declined 6% compared with about 6% seasonal improvement historically as additional economic stimulus hindered recovery.
We had double-digit growth in our plasma software revenue in the quarter supported by additional recovery in plasma collection volumes and our Donor 360 app, which enables plasma donors to register at home and streamline the pre-collection process with enhanced safety, efficiency, and convenience.
We've made significant progress with our Persona technology and early adopters are benefiting from an additional 9% to 12% plasma yield per donation.
As the industry recovers from the pandemic, we expect to return to the long-term 8% to 10% growth of U.S. sourced plasma collections and we see potential to grow in excess of that as customers strive to replenish depleted plasma inventories.
As we approach the midpoint of our second quarter, collections have improved 21% compared with the 14% improvement in the first quarter.
We remain vigilant about potential disruptions caused by new COVID variants and recent reinforcement of the U.S. border policy, but we anticipate strong plasma collection recoveries in the second half of the year and a firm fiscal '22 organic revenue growth of 15% to 25%.
Moving to hospital, revenue grew 26% in the quarter primarily due to continued improvements in hospital procedures driving increased utilization of disposables, strong capital sales in North America, and new business opportunities in Europe.
Hemostasis Management revenue grew 31% in the quarter.
Cell Salvage revenue was up 27% in the quarter with double-digit growth across all of our key markets.
Transfusion Management grew 11% in the quarter primarily driven by strong growth in SafeTrace Tx as we completed new account installations in the U.S. BloodTrack also showed significant growth in the U.S. with a slight decline in international markets as new COVID concerns delayed implementation.
We affirm our expectation for 15% to 20% organic revenue growth in hospital including Hemostasis Management organic revenue growth in the mid-20s.
Our newly acquired VASCADE vascular closure business delivered $22 million in revenue in the first quarter, exceeding our expectations.
We are increasing our fiscal '22 revenue guidance from $65 million to $75 million to $75 million to $85 million as we look to accelerate additional growth through further investments.
Blood center revenue declined 6% in the first quarter.
Apheresis revenue declined 3% in the quarter and was impacted by unfavorable order timing and lost revenue from the previously announced customer loss included in our first quarter fiscal '21 results.
We also experienced strong market demand for platelets in China driven by our expansion in Tier 2 markets.
Whole blood revenue declined 14% driven by lower collection volumes and discontinued customer contracts in North America.
Our expectations for the blood center business are unchanged and our fiscal '22 revenue guidance is a decline of 6% to 8%.
So I will start with adjusted gross margin, which was 54.7% in the first quarter, an increase of 750 basis points compared with the first quarter of the prior year.
Adjusted operating expenses in the first quarter were $87.1 million, an increase of $23.4 million or 37% when compared with the prior year.
As a percentage of revenue, adjusted operating expenses increased by 550 basis points and were at 38%.
Our first quarter adjusted operating income was $37.9 million, an increase of $9.4 million or 33% compared with the prior year.
Our adjusted operating margin was 16.6% in the first quarter, an increase of 200 basis points compared with the same period in fiscal '21.
We affirm adjusted operating margin guidance of fiscal '22 to be in the range of 19% to 20%.
Our adjusted income tax rate was 24% in the first quarter compared with 4% in the same period of fiscal '21.
We now expect our fiscal '22 adjusted tax rate to be 22%.
First quarter adjusted net income was $25.4 million, up $1.7 million or 7% and adjusted earnings per diluted share was up was $0.50, up 9% when compared to the first quarter of fiscal '21.
The adjusted income tax rate in the first quarter of fiscal '22 had a $0.13 downward impact on adjusted earnings per diluted share when compared with the prior year.
Our Vascular Closure business is exceeding original expectations and we expect this business to be net neutral to adjusted earnings per diluted share in fiscal '22 compared with our original expectation of $0.15 to $0.20 dilution in the first year following the acquisition.
Today we announced a revised operational excellence program with total gross savings of $115 million to $125 million that will deliver $80 million to $90 million in gross savings by the end of fiscal '23, which is in line with our original expectations with an additional $35 million in savings by the end of fiscal '25 with the return of volume back to pre-pandemic levels.
Additionally, we expect to incur $95 million to $105 million in restructuring and restructuring related costs over the course of this program.
In addition to updating the total estimated gross savings for this program, we accelerated the pace of these savings in fiscal '22 and now expect this program to deliver gross savings of approximately $33 million, an increase of $11 million or 50% when compared with our previous guidance.
Due to increasing inflationary pressures and investments in manufacturing, we anticipate about 25% of these savings will benefit adjusted operating income in fiscal '22.
We expect fiscal '22 adjusted earnings per diluted share to be in the range of $2.60 to $3.00.
Cash on hand at the end of the first quarter was $173 million, a decrease of $19 million since the beginning of the fiscal year.
Free cash flow before restructuring and turnaround costs was $2 million compared with $11 million in the same quarter of the prior year.
We affirm our previous guidance and continue to expect free cash flow before restructuring and turnaround expenses in fiscal '22 to be $135 million to $155 million.

Summary:
Today, we reported organic revenue growth of 6% and adjusted earnings per share of $0.50, up $0.04 or 9% compared with the first quarter of the prior year.
First quarter adjusted net income was $25.4 million, up $1.7 million or 7% and adjusted earnings per diluted share was up was $0.50, up 9% when compared to the first quarter of fiscal '21.
We affirm our previous guidance and continue to expect free cash flow before restructuring and turnaround expenses in fiscal '22 to be $135 million to $155 million.