Blood Bank of Delmarva partnering up with local hospitals to boost blood collection

DELMARVA – The Blood Bank of Delmarva is teaming up with local hospitals for an initiative to collect more blood. Those hospitals include Bayhealth, Tidalhealth, and Beebe.

Tony Prado with the Blood Bank of Delmarva says the organization is collecting less than half of what they normally would in mobile blood drives. “We’re face with the very serious issue of our mobile operations being down 57%. That means that our mobile blood drives are only operating at abour 43% capacity,” said Prado.

Prado says that a lot of this is because in the COVID-19 pandemic, people might be uncomfortable donating blood. This is a long term problem. We need a long term solution. Until we can get blood drives back, we’re asking people to come into the donor centers,” said Prado.

Plus, Prado says high schools and colleges often are a huge source of donations. Those blood drive rarely if ever are happening during the pandemic. “Those schools are not only big schools where you can get a lot of 17 or 18 year olds in the prime of their lives donating blood and perfectly healthy. When you lose 25% of your ability to collect, that’s going to hurt. I don’t care what business you’re in,” said Prado.

Prado adds that Blood Bank of Delmarva donor centers are extending their hours so that people can more easily get in and donate. He says that all blood collection is being done with social distancing, santizing procedures, and spacing out the time of appointments to keep everyone safe.