NEW YORK BLOOD CENTER ISSUES
URGENT PLEA FOR BLOOD DRIVES IN DECEMBER

NEW YORK, NY, December 1, 2003 -- Blood drives scheduled for the month of December are at least 50% below what is necessary to meet local hospital patient transfusion needs this month, reports New York Blood Center (NYBC) officials. Therefore NYBC has issued an urgent appeal to area businesses, community groups and civic organizations to schedule a blood drive in December.

“We need 200 additional community groups and businesses to step forward to host blood drives in December,� explained Dr. Robert Jones, NYBC President and CEO. “If more drives are not scheduled, we clearly won’t be able to provide the 2,000 pints of blood patients in nearly 200 New York and New Jersey hospitals require each and every day. Our community will face dramatic blood shortages, blood rationing and we may even run out of some blood types in December.�

What’s adequate?

An inadequate blood supply in our community means a less than five-day supply of all blood types. “An adequate blood supply is vital to the health of patients in our member hospitals,� added Kenneth E. Raske, President, Greater New York Hospital Association. “There’s no doubt that a lack of blood disrupts the quality of health care our local hospitals can deliver.�

NYBC’s projected December inventory of blood is the lowest it has been since 2000. One contributing factor is that NYBC no longer has the luxury of relying on blood imported from Europe, which since the 1970s had made up 25% of NYBC’s inventory. “We are working hard to become a self-sufficient blood collection organization but that requires more and more frequent local donations,� added Jones.

Some groups, such as the New York State Unified Court System, have already lent support to this critical need. Additional December blood drives have been scheduled at Nassau and Suffolk courthouses but “without many more new drives our community is looking at the worst blood shortage in four years with the possibility of cancelled surgeries or worse,� concluded Dr. Jones.

Who to call?

Businesses and organizations interested in scheduling December blood drives in New York City, Long Island, northern and central New Jersey and the Hudson Valley can call New York Blood Center at 1-800-933-BLOOD.

New York Blood Center, which is not affiliated with the American Red Cross, is a community-based, independent blood center. For close to 40 years and through its five operating regions*, New York Blood Center has been supplying life-saving transfusion products and services for patients in close to 200 New York and New Jersey hospitals.

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Mr. Jan B. Wade
Blood Management Consultant
Enhance Outcomes - Control Cost
For Information Call - 360 296-1807
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