Every two seconds someone in the United States needs a blood transfusion and the American Red Cross is pushing to meet the demand. The organization is running a national campaign to inform donors that the ARC is experiencing severe blood shortages.
“We need 14,000 units of blood (pints) every single day, just to meet the needs of the 2600 hospitals in our system,” said Tammy Nakamura, external communications manager for the Red Cross for the western region of the U.S. “We are currently falling short of that goal right now. There are several reasons that contribute to the shortage, one reason is that it is summer and we just came off of the July 4th holiday and lots of people are vacationing and taking time off as they should.”
While on vacation, Nakamura hopes donors remember there are still patients in need of blood.
“We need to remind people that patients in hospitals who need blood don’t get a vacation from needing that blood,” she said. “We need to always keep in mind we need to keep the supplies on the shelves.”
Public schools institutions of higher education are prime sources for ARC blood drives.
“During the summer schools are not in session and schools are a great source of our blood drive effort,” said Nakamura. “A Lot of schools have blood drives during the year and it really helps keeping the supply line going. But, during the summer when schools are not in session it does make it a lot tougher to get the donations that we need.”
The ARC is trying to make donating more convenient for volunteers. The organization recently added more than 350 hours to community blood drives across the country in order to reduce wait times and help improve availability. The organization has also created a way for volunteers to better see the effects of their donations.
“This is a nationwide appeal,” she said. “For instance if I went into donate today the Red Cross would try and fulfill the need of the local hospital first. And, if that need is fulfilled it goes into a national network and we are able to look across the country and see where the need is the greatest and blood shipments are made there... It's kind of cool because you get to see your good work in action.”