By Joanne Bailey-Boorsma
joanne@wktv.org

For a person with sickle cell disease, a blood transfusion remains one of the most effective and proven treatments, according to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. So imagine heading to the hospital and possibly not being able to receive that treatment.

This is what many West Michigan hospitals and blood clinics are facing as blood donations have dropped “to critically levels” since the COVID pandemic, according to Kent County Health Department’s Administrative Health Officer Dr. Adam London.

 

“Donations have been down certainly due to the pandemic,” said Versiti Area Vice President and Director of Donor Services Dawn Kaiser, during a recent interview on A Matter of Public Health podcast, hosted by the Kent County Health Department. “We were down about 40 percent in 2020 and into 2021 because of high schools, colleges, and university not hosting — kids are at home learning — and that is where we get our brand new donors and about 40 percent of our blood.”

The same is true for many businesses, with people working from home, making it difficult for organizations to host mobile drives.

One such Versiti blood drive partner that has faced those struggles has been SpartanNash which has hosted blood drives at its offices and distribution center, both located in Byron Center, since 2015. The grocery company received the Beacon of Hope award in 2019 from Versiti for its blood drives which in had collected 560 donations treating about 1,680 patients that year. In the past six years, SpartanNash employees have donated more than 2,000 pints of blood.

“We have been a longtime Versiti blood drive partner,” said SpartanNash Community Engagement Specialist Courtney Carlson. “With COVID, we discovered we just couldn’t do that as our distribution center was overloaded with supply chain issues and the risk of safety, we had to cancel our drives, especially during the COVID time.”

SpartanNash was able to host a drive in March of 2020, just as the state was starting to shutdown. But like many manufacturing and distribution centers, visitors were not allowed in to the SpartanNash distribution center and many of their office workers worked from home.

 

As the world resets itself and more employees return to work, events like blood drives can happen, according to London.

 

“Blood donation sites are a very low risk place in terms of COVID,” London said during the A Matter of Public Health podcast. “I am not aware of any outbreaks associated with a blood draw event and the majority of the blood we have in our blood supply comes from the sort of community events at churches and schools and places of work. We really need those places to step up and allow Versiti and other blood banks to come in and do their important work.”

SpartanNash hosted offsite blood drives over the past several months but next week will be having its first onsite blood drive since the pandemic at its distribution center. While the offsite donation drives helped, Carlson said it is much easier for employees to donate at their work place since they can simply take an hour, donate, and then get back to work versus having to drive to another location.

As for safety, Carlson said they have confidence in Versiti which requires face masks, has temperature checks before donating, cleans between donors, and works at making everyone comfortable.

 

“We are hoping that by letting the community know that we are hosting mobile blood drives at our facilities that it will inspire other work places and organizations to do the same,” she said.

London noted that about one in several people visiting a hospital will need blood and that the shortage is critical.

While O-type is always needed, blood from a diverse pool is very important, Kaiser said.

“Everybody has an A, B, or O blood type. Everybody is pretty familiar with that,” she said. “There is also about an alphabet after that most people don’t know. So a little more specific type.”

For African-Americans, 44 percent of them have a blood type called RO in addition to their A, B, O blood type. According to the Centers for Disease control, one our of 365 African-Americans have sickle cell anemia with the major treatment being blood transfusions. A person with sickle cell anemia may have 10 to 15 units of blood in a month and because of that need, would benefit from blood from someone with the same or similar ethnicity, according to Kaiser.

“That is why we are asking communities of color to roll up their sleeves and give back to their communities,” she said.

To host a blood drive or to donate, visit Versiti’s website, Versiti.org.