Red Cross experiencing shortfall in blood donations
The American Red Cross is pleading for blood donations as its supply dips to unexpected lows.
Nationally, the blood supply shortfall means the Red Cross has half the amount of available blood products on hand than it did a year ago.
Locally for the Appalachian Blood Services Region the situation mirrors the nationwide shortage, said spokesman Bob Lutjen.
“We’re not getting a whole lot of response,” Lutjen said, of attempts to attract donors to blood drives.
A June promotion to attract donors has fallen flat, he added. The promotion, which is ongoing, included a weekly drawing for a $500 gas card.
“So far it has not made any significant change,” he said, adding that the drawing was held at the division level, meaning that the donors from the Appalachian region were combined with those from four other regions.
Only about 5 percent of the population donates blood and donations typically drop during the warmer months when schools are on summer break and people take vacations.
The unseasonably early start to spring may have contributed to the decrease in donations, the Red Cross speculated in its nationwide emergency call for donors. And the organization is worried about the mid-week Independence Day holiday, because fewer blood drives have been scheduled for that week.
“Every day, the Red Cross must collect more than 17,000 pints of blood for patients at more than 3,000 hospitals and transfusion centers across the country. Of that, the Appalachian Blood Services Region must collect approximately 300 pints per day,” said Bob Eaton, CEO of the Appalachian Blood Services Region, in the news alert issuing the call for donations. “We need donors to make appointments in the coming days and weeks to help us ensure that all patient blood needs can be met. Each pint of whole blood can help save more than one life.”
In the fall, Carilion Clinic, the region’s largest hospital system, stopped getting its blood supply from Red Cross. Instead, Carilion signed a contract with Richmond-based Virginia Blood Services and has been seeking to drive donations to that organization.
Lutjen said the loss of the contract with Carilion has not been a factor in the declining donations. And the Red Cross Appalachian region continues to supply blood to LewisGale Regional Health System, the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Salem, Centra Health and nearly two dozen other hospitals in 46 counties of Virginia and West Virginia.
You can look up ways to donate to Red Cross here.
June 26, 2012 - 9:59 AM
Having donated through the Red Cross and VA Blood Services, I’d say the Appalachain region needs to seriously step up their game if they don’t want to lose out completely to VA Blood Services. I am the volunteer donor coordinator for my company and we had received so many complaints regarding the experiences of people who had donated through the Red Cross Bloodmobile that I felt compelled to give VA Blood Services a chance. It was 100% worth it and we are committed to staying with them. The scheduling was a breeze, the support given to the coordinator (me) to help drum up interest, the professionalism of the folks taking blood…everything was top notch. I’d be willing to bet that if you could get the numbers for VA Blood Services and their donation volumes since arriving in the valley and compare that to what the Red Cross has lost or is ‘down’, you’d see that most have just chosen to donate in an environment that they prefer.
@Noodle 78 Thank you for the insight. Can you share some specific complaints?
Also, I have already asked VBS about its donation trends since coming and I hope to post another blog post soon with that information. Stay tuned.
As coordinator, I had issues with the communication with the Red Cross coordinator. Unanswered emails, long delays in returning phone calls…basically just poor management of the process. Donors complained of injuries which I see as far more important. From excessive bruising to what was viewed as unnecessary ‘pain’ during the process….I heard a lot from people. I had several who had such a negative experience that they were hesitant even to try with VA Blood Services. Given, donating blood isn’t necessarily a walk in the park and there is always the opportunitiy for bruising or pain but I wasn’t hearing complains from just first timers. I received complaints from people who had been donating for 20-30 years and really knew what to expect from the process. Also, on more than one occasion the Bloodmobile was late and I felt like folks from the Red Cross were sometimes more interested in taking a break to smoke than getting my fellow employees through the donation process smoothly.
Injuries. Excessive bruising, what was viewed as ‘unnecessary’ pain during the donation
juries during the donation. Excessive bruising,
I stopped donating blood and money to the Red Cross. I learned that many of the organizations employees are unionized. I will not donate to any union coffer. Enough said.