The Long Beach Medical Center is in need of blood donations, as it faces a shortage brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Long Beach has its own medical center, cardiovascular center and women and children’s center, it does not have its own blood donation center, which puts it at risk of blood shortages following events of “extreme instances in the hospital that require the use of a lot of blood,” said Anthony Salazar, the transfusion medicine supervisor at Long Beach Medical Center.
The Long Beach Medical Center is especially in need of O-negative blood donations, which is the universal donor for people.
O-negative is needed most since it’s the first option given to patients that come in with trauma who immediately need blood, as well as people who may experience labor complications. Roughly 38% of the U.S. population has O-type blood, according to the U.S. Red Cross. It’s just a matter of getting people into the doors to donate, Salazar said.
“There’s always a need for blood, whether or not we are in a blood shortage. You are going to improve someone’s life. You are going to save someone’s life if you take the time to come and donate.”
Anthony Salazar, transfusion medicine supervisor at Long Beach Medical Center.
During the peak of COVID, many people were unable to donate blood since residents can’t donate when they’re sick. The lingering effects however, can be seen in mobile donation centers that would travel to busy locations to attract donors.
“Now that people get to work from home, the certain areas that mobile drives used to be able to collect [from] like business centers, that sort of has reduced because people are staying at home,” Salazar said, adding that universities and colleges going virtual also added to the issue. “COVID was just limiting the opportunities for collections.”
Now, the majority of the blood donations at the Long Beach Medical Center come from its own employees. Salazar estimated that 75% of blood transfusions are coming from hospital staff.
“I’m sure a lot of the community comes to this hospital,” Salazar said. “We’re just trying to find a way to encourage these Long Beach citizens to come and donate here in our donor center … so we don’t have to close down any services.”
According to the medical center, only about 5% of the U.S. population donates their blood, even though about 50% are eligible donors. Salazar predicted that most of the eligible population simply doesn’t want to deal with the inconvenience: it takes about 15 minutes with a needle in someone’s arm to gather a unit of blood, which is good for 47 days.
Platelet donations, which are commonly used in surgery for stopping the flow of blood, take about one to two hours from the donor, and are even harder to get.
“A lot of our donors have had an experience where they needed blood transfusion or had a loved one who needed one,” Salazar said.
Once blood donations reach critically low levels, the medical center works with their blood suppliers at the San Diego Blood Bank. Due to the “cyclical nature” of blood donor shortages, Salazar said, the San Diego Blood Bank is “not immune to their own shortage.”
This forces the medical center to take a close account of its supply and ensure the blood goes “to where it’s most needed.” This also prompts the medical center to begin sending out mass messages to the community encouraging people to donate, though it usually takes about two weeks to get out of critical levels, Salazar said.
There are certain restrictions that the Long Beach Medical Center has in place for those who wish to donate blood. Residents cannot donate if they:
- Have an infection or sickness on the day of donating, or within the last three days
- Are male and have had sex with another male within the last three months
- Are pregnant, or have been pregnant in the last six weeks
- Have received a blood transfusion in the last three months
- Have had or been treated for syphilis or gonorrhea in the last 3 months
- Been outside the United States or Canada in the last 3 years
- Have had a positive test for HIV/AIDS virus
For a full list of restrictions and qualifications to donate blood, visit Memorial Care’s website.
In 2022, the Long Beach Medical Center used about 8,700 units of blood for transfusion, while the Miller Women and Children’s Hospital used about 2,000 units. If an extreme case comes into the hospital, a single person can use as much as 100 units of blood.
“When that blood does get used, the resources to be able to collect more, it’s just sort of slowed down just because of the lack of donors,” Salazar said. “That can really critically put you at these levels of low inventory that you’re not able to get back up [from] in a short amount of time.”
The blood donations received at the Long Beach Medical Center—whether it’s being used for its red blood cells, platelets or plasma—all stay within the hospital and are being used on Long Beach residents only.
The blood donor center at the Long Beach Medical Center is open from 8 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. on Mondays, from 10 a.m. to 5:15 p.m. on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and from 8:30 a.m. to 3:45 p.m. on Wednesdays and Fridays.
“There’s always a need for blood, whether or not we are in a blood shortage,” Salazar said. “You are going to improve someone’s life. You are going to save someone’s life if you take the time to come and donate.”