During January’s cold snap, Versiti Blood Center of Wisconsin's blood supply ran low due to canceled blood drives and appointments. This mirrored a nationwide trend, as the American Red Cross reported a 35% drop in its supply.
The local supply is rebounding as regularly scheduled blood drives resume, but donations scheduled now can help replenish what was lost last month. Typically, blood supply drops when extreme winter or summer weather leads to cancelled drives.
Gretchen Jameson is the chief marketing officer at Versiti. She joins Lake Effect’s Sam Woods to learn more about the shortage, and seasonal changes to blood supply.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Sam Woods: Why is there a blood shortage right now?
Gretchen Jameson: It's really a fascinating thing when we think about blood shortage in that of the eligible donor population in the United States, only three to five percent actually donate. So in some respects, we're always in this cycle of just needing more blood on the shelves at all of our hospitals across the country.
Certain times of the year, that's a little bit more acute than others. In particular, the winter months when it's cold and it's hard to get out and donate, especially for some of those older donors who are so dependable and so loyal to this mission. Also in the summer months, when all those high school blood drives are not happening. So there's always the seasonality to the more acute and dire need for blood. But I have to say, in many ways, we always need it because there's such a low percentage of the population giving regularly.
Why can’t blood be stockpiled, since we tend to know about these cyclical dips?
I've been in my role for just about two years and I’ve asked very similar questions, and we would need to get our chief medical officer and our transfusion medicine doctors on this call to really explain it to us. But unfortunately, no, it's got a very limited shelf life. And the use is so continuous, level one trauma centers, like a Froedtert, the need that they have for blood is continuous for routine surgeries, cancer patients that need transfusions, things that are predictable and planned.Then you think of the mass trauma events, where we have these circumstances that demand sometimes hundreds of units to save a life. That throws a wrench in everything.
So it's quite fascinating actually to learn how the inventory and this system works across the country. Versiti participates in something called the Blood Centers of America, BCA. We're a part of a network where if there's shortages in other parts of the country, the BCA affiliates kick in and help. So it really is a very fascinating thing across the country, not just here in Milwaukee or here in Wisconsin, how this inventory has to work to keep Americans healthy when we need it.
I've given blood before, but I’ve got to do a little bit of mental prep beforehand. Just the idea of needles is, you know, it's a bit of a mental hurdle for me. So can you help make the case to folks like me who are a little scared going into a donation appointment?
It's normal, it really is. I've had a lot of needles and I'm not a fan. I don't know that I've met many donors in our beautiful donor set that are like, ‘yay, this is the best part of giving blood.’ So first of all, just know you're not alone, that is completely normal.
But our phlebotomists, the folks who draw the blood, are really well trained. They're really well trained to make it very pain-free. Some people like to watch, I do not, and they'll talk you through it. Back when I was a teenager and I'm older now, you could see the blood that you were giving. It was a little odd. Now it's actually out of your line of sight, and frankly that really helps. I'm going to tell you, you really almost don't notice that you're off and running. And once it starts, then it's just super easy from there.
