Blood Assurance is facing a critical shortage of blood supplies with only a few days of inventory for several major blood types.
Cookeville Team Supervisor Ashley Barlow said the organization is currently operating with a limited supply of O-positive, O-negative, A-negative, and B-negative blood. Barlow said the summer months traditionally represent the most difficult time of the year to secure donations because regular routines change and students are out of school.
“We’ve got a couple days supply of that left of each of those,” Barlow said. “We’ve got a couple days of A-negative and B-negative, that’s why it’s so important that we get donors in, especially getting them on the right machines and the donating the right thing for their blood type because that really helps us fill those needs because we are, like I said, the summer months are the hardest because you’ve got people going on vacation and our supplies are so low right now.”
Barlow said the Cookeville Center is specifically seeking O-negative donors because that blood type serves as the universal donor for patients in emergency situations. Barlow said the facility also attempts to transition A-positive donors to platelet donations to meet a high demand for that specific product.
“Anyone that is in need of blood and they don’t know their blood type, they can give them O-negative,” Barlow said. “We do see quite a few O-negative donors the last week or so. We’ve been really working on trying to get them in here because we really need their blood.”
Barlow said high rates of dehydration during the summer heat and the lack of time for parents with children out of school contribute to the decline in donor turnout. Barlow said the Cookeville Center has attempted to mitigate these challenges by maintaining hours on Saturdays from 9 AM to 1 PM and staying late to accommodate donor schedules.
“Main thing we try to do is we try to make sure that our donors, we work really hard to work around their schedules,” Barlow said. “We offered to come in, we’ve stayed over to try to get people in for us here at Blood Assurance.”
Barlow said eligible donors who complete a successful donation during June, July, and August receive a $25 e-gift card approximately seven days after their visit.
“We have some donors that prefer to go to other places because there are places that do pay for products, but we do promotional items,” Barlow said. “During the other months we alternate different promotional items, so we do t-shirts, we do socks, we do cups. We make sure they feel and know how appreciated they are.”
Barlow said a single donation has the potential to save up to three lives.
“Every donation makes a difference and helps,” Barlow said.