Director's Letter of Need:
Dear Chairperson,
Community Blood Center (CBC) and area hospitals are teaming up to raise awareness on the need for blood and blood products in our community in the wake of COVID 19. CBC is a not-for-profit 501C organization that fulfills the blood needs of over 65 area hospitals spanning across Missouri and Kansas. This includes all area hospitals who receive platelets, plasma, and red blood cell needs from our local blood bank. CBC must collect over 250 products daily to meet the needs of these hospitals and relies on the help of organizations, such as yours, to host community blood drives.
Early in the pandemic, hospitals across the country postponed elective surgeries to ensure they had resources available to treat COVID 19 patients and encouraged people to stay home. This resulted in a temporary decrease in the need for blood. However, hospitals are now resuming normal surgery schedules and unfortunately, donations are still decreasing resulting in a declining community blood supply. Work from home, home schooling and social distancing are becoming the “norm” and we must fundamentally change the way donors donate blood to meet the needs of patients in the hospitals we serve. We are shifting our focus to large venues within communities and we need donors to start donating at these new locations and to do so every 8 weeks.
Donating blood is a safe and essential part of the community’s healthcare network. Whether you donate at a CBC blood drive or at a CBC donor center, we control and meet the recommendations from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) to minimize the risk to donors and staff. We have put the following practices in place your safety:
Tuesday Aug 4, 2020
1:00 PM - 6:00 PM CDT