Blood drives take a hit during crisis
Blood supplies are drying up as the COVID-19 pandemic forces the American Red Cross to cancel blood drives in central Ohio and across the country.
“Since the pandemic, there’s literally been thousands and thousands of blood drives across the country that have been in this situation,” said Rodney Wilson, spokesman for the American Red Cross of Central Ohio. His chapter has either adjusted or canceled hundreds of drives.
Host groups also have canceled blood drives. Wilson attributes that largely to new safety protocols.
Under those protocols, appointments are required and walk-in donations are not accepted. They also include increased sanitizing and spacing requirements to meet social-distancing recommendations.
“Part of dealing with a pandemic is controlling the number of people we have at a blood drive at any given time,” Wilson said.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, blood supplies have fluctuated for the Red Cross. Donations dropped dramatically at the start before evening out after elective surgeries were put on hold by hospitals and even state governments.
As hospitals restarted those procedures, the need for blood increased, Wilson said.
The American Red Cross is a national blood inventory network that is interconnected. While blood donated by central Ohioans will be prioritized to local hospitals, the donations can be dispersed across the country to where they are needed most.
The agency has been able to meet local requests from all 39 central Ohio hospitals, but as shortages and cancellations continue, some hospitals dependent on those supplies are worried.
Nationwide Children’s Hospital experienced a low supply of blood type AB platelets, a small subset of donors, in early June, said Dr. Kathleen Nicol, section chief of clinical pathology and director of transfusion services. But that has since rebounded.
“We’ve weathered the storm with a lot of preemptive planning to try to reallocate resources to ensure a patient got what they needed before their procedure,” Nicol said.
Nicol said Nationwide Children’s is hosting internal blood drives among hospital staff members, but it can tap other hospitals and the Red Cross if supplies run low.
Other local hospitals, including those in the Ohio Health network and Ohio State University’s Wexner Medical Center, have not experienced recent shortages.
Wilson said the nationwide shortage has affected all blood types.
Canceled blood drives in local schools could hurt the Red Cross supply during the pandemic, Wilson said. About 20% of blood donations come through events at schools during the academic year. Many school districts don’t even know yet whether students will be in classrooms this fall.
Columbus resident Molly Kowaleski gave blood Tuesday at the American Red Cross headquarters, 995 E. Broad St., and said she tries to make regular blood donations. She said the added precautions by the Red Cross haven’t made donating harder.
Kowaleski said she also showed up to get an antibody test for COVID-19, which the Red Cross is offering jointly with blood donations.
“It’s one of the easiest things you can do that can genuinely save someone’s life,” she said.
“There’s fewer opportunities for people to donate blood now, so more of them are showing up at the fewer places we have,” Wilson said. gshillcock@dispatch.com @Shillcockgeorge