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BWH/MGH Blood Challenge
One pint of donated blood can help as many as three adults and as many as five infants in the NICU. And even though nearly 55 percent of the population are eligible to make such a donation, only five percent do.
At BWH, 10,000 units of platelets, 15,000 units of plasma and 37,000 units of red blood cells are used in patient care each year. Slightly more than 4,000 units are collected annually at BWH’s Blood Donor Center, so BWH relies on the help of the American Red Cross to supply nearly 33,000 units of blood.
As a means to help narrow that gap, the BWH Blood Donor Center has again challenged their counterpart at MGH to a friendly duel to see which hospital can recruit the most employees to donate blood from August 27 to September 14. This marks the second year of this competition.
“The real winners of this competition are Partners’ patients,” said Linda Perry, donor recruiter in the Blood Donor Center at BWH. Perry explained that even though MGH managed to win last year’s competition, both BWH and MGH significantly increased their respective donor participation rates. BWH collected 232 units of blood during last year’s competition. “I’d like to increase our donations this year, and it would be great to win,” said Perry.
BWH employees are encouraged to put BWH on top of this year’s competition by rallying coworkers and visiting the Blood Donor Center during the competition dates.
“With newly mandated blood-donor restrictions that further limit the eligible population, it has become more important for those who can donate blood to act on it,” said Perry, who explains that employees often don’t realize how simple donating blood is at BWH until they try it.
A new “Challenge 2001” t-shirt will be given to all employees who participate in the competition. For hours of donation or for more information, call ext. 2-6620.