Here's the deal.
Wait... First I want to thank Aysha for bringing up the issue. Very much appreciated.
m.dailykos.com/…
But there is a real fundamental problem here. At the end she links to the red cross (which I'll refer to as ARC moving forward). Fine. You don't understand the industry. Few do. No hard feelings. I put the appropriate link in the comments.
But as so often happens in this format, no one noticed. Thus, we still have a staff article on a CRITICAL subject with a false premise linking to the wrong site to actually help your community. I want to fix that.
Fact: ARC provides 40% of the blood supply for the country. That's a lot! But it's also only 40%. Where does the rest come from? Well that's complicated. The industry is in flux right now. So you have huge orgs like Vitalant, New York Blood Center, One Blood, etc. But one thing they have in common? They still (mostly) allow their community blood centers to function as community blood centers. Then you have your community blood centers that continue to be truly independent. See LifeShare, Blood Connection, Stanford, Hoxworth, Carter, South Texas, Bloodworks NW, The Blood Center (LA), Mississippi Valley, Oklahoma Blood Institute, Gulf Coast, Shepeard in GA. I can go on and on. See here: americasblood.org/…
Let's get to the point. Is the current crisis, as stated by ARC, real? Abso-fucking-lutely! It's a real deal crisis in our business. Not only can none of us keep up, but we can't help each other out (which is how we usually get through tough times. We call it resource sharing.)
It's a very complicated issue, and depends on region. But one issue is consistent. Surprise! It's COVID-19. Same problems everyone has. Staffing. We can only draw as much as the folks we have available to draw. We ask them to do more? They leave. It's a black hole of negative reinforcement. So ARC (and the rest of us) SCREAM for help. Then my phone rings off the hook with some variation of the following:
"You begged us to come in, bit you turned me away cause I didn't have an appointment. Oh... And your next appointment isn't untill Wednesday. You must not need me."
So yeah... We're completely fucked right now.
Alright. Venting done. What's the solution? It's complicated. But here's a couple short term ways to help us, and YOUR community out.
1) Find your local blood center. It may very well be ARC, and that's cool! But they ain't the only game around. They routinely set up drives in our territory despite the fact they provide ZERO blood products to our hospitals. Yes it pisses me off. Go here:
americasblood.org/…
2) Schedule a donation. WB, double red, platelet. I don't care. Ask what's most needed for your blood type. They'll tell ya. If you don't know your blood type? Do anything. We need it all.
3) Ask about hosting a blood drive. We rely on volunteer community coordinators to organize and recruit mobile blood drives. They are what you might call difficult right now.
4) Learn more about the industry and become an advocate. It's the most important thing. Spread the word! Need to learn more? Ask me. Few people know more about the industry. I'm in my third decade and third department. I'll happily share my knowledge. And maybe I need to follow up on that failed promise from years ago that I would start a series on the industry. But until then? Fire away. I'll answer any and all questions. We desperately need to embrace more transparency in our business.
COVID-19 is a nightmare, but it doesn't slow down the need of oncology patients, babies, postpartum bleeding mom's, traffic injuries, SHOOTING victims (anyone seen the news?), transplant patients, emergency cardio thoracic patients, etc etc etc, needs.
WE NEED HELP!
But PLEASE ensure it is going to YOUR blood center and helps YOUR community. So yeah.... Here's the right link one more time:
americasblood.org/…
Thanks for reading. Much love to all of you.