“Donors are kept productive until time to donate. It makes both the employee and employer happy.”
United Blood Services is a non-profit organization with community blood centers throughout the U.S. The organization was founded in 1943 as the Salt River Valley Blood Bank in Phoenix, Arizona, and its national headquarters is Blood Systems, located in Scottsdale, Arizona. United Blood Services community blood centers provide blood, blood components, and special services to patients in more than 500 hospitals in 18 states.
Potential blood donor participants are often reluctant to participate in blood donations because of the assumption that the process takes too long. This preconceived perception is one of the top reasons why blood donor recruitment has become such a challenge. Business organizations and academic institutions are especially concerned with worker productivity and the efficient use of time. Johnna Pevey, the United Blood Services Director of Donor Recruitment in Lubbock, TX was faced with this challenge during recruitment at local business organizations and educational institutions
The right solution would: eliminate idle time spent by participants, maintain the donor schedule by preventing scheduling delays, and make the donation process faster.
After consulting with Johnna Pevey at United Blood Services, LRS determined that the on-premise Guest Paging System with coaster pagers would be the best solution for its mobile blood drive units. A cell phone paging option was available but would require a dedicated analog phone line.
At the mobile donor site, Coaster Call pagers were handed out to each donor participant as they signed in, and the pager number was recorded by their name. Participants then returned to their desk, worksite or classroom until it was their turn to donate. When the unit was ready to move on to the next scheduled appointment, the donor was paged to return to the site.
The system allowed donors to remain productive until it was their time to donate. At business sites, employers and employees were satisfied, as they were able to return to their desks and work until they were paged. At school sites, administrators were content, as students were not kept out of class. Due to this, businesses and institutions overcame their resistance to blood donation participation. “We almost lost some drives because of students milling around and being out of class too long. Those drives were saved,” explains Johnna Pevey.
Connect with an LRS expert. We’re available Monday – Friday, 8 a.m. – 5 p.m. CST.
