Blood Assurance: Main Site

Blood Assurance Initiates Appeal for Donors in Response to Impending Weather
March 2nd, 2012 2:34 PM

Due to severe weather throughout the area and the cancellation of previously scheduled blood drives, Blood Assurance is issuing an appeal for blood donors this weekend.

The only source of blood components for all area hospitals and already facing shortages due to previous increased blood usage, Blood Assurance has initiated its disaster relief plan in response to the impending weather.

On Saturday, March 3, the following donor centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.:
Chattanooga, TN (Downtown, East Brainerd and Erlanger)
Cleveland, TN
Cookeville, TN
Dalton, GA
Fort Oglethorpe, GA
Hixson, TN
Rome, GA

The blood drive previously scheduled for Friday at First Baptist Church in Benton, TN has been rescheduled for Saturday, March 3 from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Another bloodmobile will be at the Walmart in Calhoun, GA on Saturday from 10 a.m. to 3:30 p.m.

On Monday, March 5 the Lowe’s in Cookeville, TN will host a blood drive from 11 a.m. to 5:15 p.m.

Also on Monday, Jones Management in Cleveland, TN will host a blood drive from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.

All 11 donor centers will reopen on Monday at 8 a.m. All donors will be registered to win a weather radio. For more information or directions to your nearest donor center, please visit www.bloodassurance.org.

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Blood Bank Continues Appeal for Donations
February 14th, 2012 12:29 PM

In 1972, Blood Assurance was founded to provide a safe and adequate supply of blood in the Chattanooga area. Prior to the creation of the region’s only blood bank, patients in need of blood transfusions were required to provide their own blood donors, who would donate blood at local hospitals.

As Blood Assurance celebrates its 40^th anniversary in 2012, it is once again appealing to the public for donations to ensure a continued adequate supply of blood for patients in need.

Blood Assurance is now the sole provider of blood components for more than 50 hospitals and healthcare facilities and needs a minimum of 400 donations daily to meet area demands.

Accidents, traumas, chemotherapy treatments and routine surgeries are just some of the causes of the need for blood transfusions.

“I have bone cancer and my body has not made its own blood in the last three years. If not for the compassionate people giving of their life's blood, I would be dead,” said Tommy Aaron of East Ridge, TN.

Blood Assurance is currently in need of types O negative, A negative, B negative and O positive donations.

Donors are eligible to give whole blood every 56 days. To verify your eligibility, please call 1-800-962-0628 or use the Live Chat feature during business hours at www.bloodassurance.org.

Earlier this month, officials at Blood Assurance decided to extend hours at all facilities on Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. to give area residents the opportunity to donate.

Several blood drives are also scheduled this month. For a complete list, please visit www.bloodassurance.org/blooddrives.

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Photo caption:
Caity Phillips, a student at Chattanooga State Community College, donates blood on Tuesday at Blood Assurance's main office in Chattanooga. Her donation will be used to help up to 3 patients in need.

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Desperate Need of Blood Donations
December 30th, 2011 3:52 PM

Blood Assurance is in desperate need of blood donations and will offer extended hours at four area locations on Saturday. Currently unable to fill orders for the area’s hospitals, Blood Assurance will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the following locations on Saturday:

Downtown Chattanooga (across from the UTC McKenzie Arena)

Hixson

Gunbarrel Road (next to Chick-fil-A)

Cleveland

The Fort Oglethorpe office will also be open on Saturday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. Blood Assurance officials cite a decrease in donations and an increase in blood usage as the cause of the shortage. For a list of all locations, please visit www.bloodassurance.org/locations or find a list of upcoming blood drives at www.bloodassurance.org/blooddrives.

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Riverbend Promotion Winner
June 7th, 2011 2:28 PM

By Lindsay Boyle, marketing intern

Rossville resident Monica Easley was the winner of Blood Assurance's monthly promotion in May. Easley's name was drawn out of thousands of entries from across the Blood Assurance service region to receive the prize.

The May prize was a Riverbend package which includes: two Riverbend admission pins, two box seats to the June 10 Huey Lewis & The News concert at Riverbend, two annual memberships to the Riverbend Rewards program and a one night stay at the Doubletree by Hilton downtown hotel on June 10.

Easley registered for the prize after donating blood at Blood Assurance's Fort Oglethorpe office, located on Lafayette Road.

The regional blood center offers a different promotion each month. Participants are not required to donate blood in order to register. Visitors at any Blood Assurance location or blood drive are eligible to register.

Easley's blood donation can benefit up to three patients in area hospitals. Blood Assurance is the only provider of blood donations for more than 50 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

For a list of this month's blood drives, please visit www.bloodassurance.org/blooddrives.

To learn about this month's promotion, please visit www.bloodassurance.org/promotions.

Photo- Monica Easley accepts her prize, with her daughter Lexie.

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Nurses Day, John Deere Winner and @BAQuality
May 6th, 2011 10:26 AM

John Deere Giveaway

Congratulations to Jessica Preston of Cedartown, GA. Jessica was the winner of the John Deere riding lawn mower that was given away during our April promotion.

Pictured from left is Kim Compton, general manager of Piedmont Outdoor in Piedmont, AL and Jessica Preston, winner.

Now through May 31, visitors at any Blood Assurance location or blood drive can register to win a Riverbend Festival package. For more information, visit www.bloodassurance.org/promotions.

Nurse's Day
Today is Nurse's Day and we'd like to recognize the nurses on staff at Blood Assurance for their dedication to our donors and the overall mission of providing life-saving blood donations to local hospitals.

Follow @BAQuality

If you're on Twitter, be sure to follow Ray Smith, director of quality assurance, for updates from the Blood Assurance Quality Department. Check out his latest tweet -

"Thanks to all the generous donors in our area for responding to the need for blood. Since the storm, over 1200 first time donors!"

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Update on Critical Blood Shortage
May 3rd, 2011 1:08 PM

Area residents roll up sleeves in honor of neighbors

Last week as severe weather was making its way to the Tennessee Valley, Blood Assurance inventory levels were already much lower compared to April 2010.

With most of our region under multiple severe thunderstorm and tornado warnings on Wednesday, the anticipated 400 donations that Blood Assurance needs to collect daily would inevitably be much less. For example, 227 units of blood were collected Wednesday.

On Thursday as the storm's impact was first being evaluated, it became clear that the need for blood donations would increase, not only to help make up for the lack of donations on Wednesday and in previous days, but to assist victims of the storm, whose injuries were still unknown.

Blood Assurance has experienced an outstanding show of support throughout all locations in the community. From Thursday morning to Sunday afternoon, Blood Assurance collected 2,040 units of blood, approximately a 5 day supply of blood. While donations are still needed, we are asking that donors make appointments beginning May 9 by calling 1-800-962-0628 or by making an appointment online.

Blood Assurance is still in need of type O negative, A negative and B negative donations. We will need these donations to continue helping victims of the tornadoes as well as all other patients in our area hospitals.

Blood Assurance is in need of a minimum of 400 donations daily, to maintain a 2-3 day supply on hand at all times during normal circumstances.

"We do not know what will come our way, as evidenced last week, but we do have to be ready for any and all emergency situations in which blood will be needed in order to minimize the effects on the area's hospitals," said Rick Youngblood, President & CEO of Blood Assurance.

Blood Assurance is the only source of blood donations for more than 50 hospitals and healthcare facilities in Alabama, Georgia, North Carolina and Tennessee.

For a list of area blood drives this month, please visit www.bloodassurance.org/blooddrives.

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Hours for Saturday, April 30
April 29th, 2011 3:00 PM

Friday, April 29 - open until 6 p.m. (walk-ins until 4 p.m. due to wait time)

Saturday, April 30 - normal hours at all facilities (9 a.m. to 1 p.m.) - those not open on Saturdays are Erlanger, Cartersville and Fort Payne*.

*Fort Payne office closed due to power outages until further notice.

Monday, May 2 - Normal Operating Hours

Bloodmobile Schedule for Monday, May 2

Dalton First United Methodist Church

Dalton

12:30pm-6:45pm

East Ridge United Methodist

Chattanooga

4-8pm

Walmart Hixson

Hixson

10am-6pm

Soddy Daisy Middle School

Soddy Daisy

8am-2pm

Woodstation Elementary School

Rock Spring

1pm-6pm

Riverside Christian Academy

Fayetteville

8:30am-2:30pm

Cave Spring Elementary

Cave Spring

9:15am-5pm

East Brainerd Elementary

Chattanooga

10am-3pm

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Critical Shortage - Your Questions Answered
April 29th, 2011 1:55 PM

Answers to some of your questions

Most Urgent Needs

Our most urgent needs right now are O negative, B negative and A negative. If your blood type is one of these, please visit your local Blood Assurance as soon as possible. For other types, you are still needed and we are encouraging those types to plan their donations for mid-week of May 2.

Why Those Types?

O negative is the universal type and can be received by anyone of any blood type in an emergency situation. Our supplies are also low on B negative and A negative.

What is My Type?

If you have a Blood Assurance donor card, it's on the left side of your card. If it says "AP" that means A positive, "BN" for B negative and so on. If you don't have a card, you can ask that one be sent to you when you register to donate at Blood Assurance.

Expected Waiting Times

Wait times are currently 45 minutes to 1 hour at our facilities. These times are ranging, and we ask that you please be patient because your donation is extremely important and very much needed.

Drink plenty of water and eat an iron-rich meal prior to donating.

What can I do while I wait?

Glad you asked! If you haven't already, consider joining the Be The Match Registry. This registry matches potential donors with patients in need of life-saving marrow or stem cell transplants. All it takes to join is a cheek swab.

You should also drink plenty of water before you donate, so feel free to grab a drink from the refreshment area.

Text your friends! This is a good time to post on Facebook or Twitter that you're potentially saving 3 lives.

I want to host a blood drive

That's fantastic! Thanks for your willingness to host us. Most of our blood drives are scheduled several months in advance to allow us time to recruit donors. (Believe it or not, we hardly ever have wait times!) This also gives our mobile crews a schedule of their hours as much in advance as possible.

During emergency situations and critical shortages, we continue to report to those planned destinations unless those businesses or schools have been closed, road conditions are changed, etc.

Please contact our recruitment department to see about scheduling a blood drive over the next few weeks.

I'm not eligible to donate, but I still want to help

Thanks for your interest! We have a volunteer program and are always looking for enthusiastic individuals and organizations.

Hours of operation, changes to schedule, extended hours - How can I keep up?

In the event of a critical shortage, we will often extend the hours of these blood drives to accommodate additional donors. Such was the case yesterday, April 28. Should our hours of operation be extended, our website will be updated on the homepage, along with our Twitter and Facebook pages. Please note that we are assessing these hours and locations on a day-to-day basis and we will update you as soon as we have the information.

For normal operating hours, please click here.

Why is so much blood needed?

Trauma patients can use 50 or more pints of blood and approximately 1 in 10 patients entering a hospital will require a blood transfusion. We always need to keep approximately a 2 to 3 day supply on hand, but the unexpected can put an additional strain on the blood supply, which was already low at the time. Officials are still assessing damages and injuries and we have to be prepared to meet the need.

For those that are not aware, Blood Assurance is the ONLY source of blood donations for 50+ hospitals and healthcare facilities. This includes those in Bradley & Hamilton Counties, Tennessee; Dade & Catoosa Counties, Georgia; and DeKalb & Jackson Counties in Alabama, which were some of the areas hardest-hit by this week's tornadoes.

We need approximately 400 units daily during normal circumstances. After this week's devastation, Blood Assurance is estimating the number to be at 600 units in order to meet the current need.

Prior to Wednesday's tornadoes, we had 26 units of O negative on the shelf, ready to ship. (To put that into perspective, we serve more than 50 hospitals as their only blood provider.) Blood is needed everyday, year-round.

When you hear about an accident on the traffic report, that could potentially mean blood usage. When you learn that someone has been diagnosed with cancer and is undergoing treatment, that could mean blood usage. Routine surgeries are another reason for blood usage.

Please, please be mindful of those that need blood now, and those that will need blood next week, next month, and next year. While the need for blood can sometimes go up, it never goes away.

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Blood Drives April 28 - April 30
April 28th, 2011 2:00 PM

4/28/11	Walmart Hamilton Village	Chattanooga	10:30:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Walmart Soddy Daisy	Soddy Daisy	10:30:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Walmart Dayton	Dayton	10:30:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Walmart - Collegedale	Ooltewah	10:30:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Walmart Fort Oglethorpe	Fort Oglethorpe	10:30:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Algood Middle School	Cookeville	12:00:00 PM	5:00:00 PM
4/28/11	Burner Systems International	Chattanooga	1:30:00 PM	5:30:00 PM
4/28/11	W. L. Swain Elementary	Plainville	11:00:00 AM	4:30:00 PM
4/28/11	Title Bucks	Chattanooga	10:15:00 AM	12:15:00 PM
4/29/11	Baylor School	Chattanooga	10:00:00 AM	3:30:00 PM
4/29/11	Chattanooga State	Chattanooga	9:00:00 AM	12:30:00 PM
4/29/11	CVS Monteagle	Monteagle	1:00:00 PM	6:00:00 PM
4/29/11	Rockmart High School	Rockmart	9:00:00 AM	2:30:00 PM
4/29/11	Sequoyah High School	Soddy Daisy	9:30:00 AM	2:30:00 PM
4/29/11	ARS Advertising	Chattanooga	2:00:00 PM	5:00:00 PM
4/30/11	Signal Mountain Athletic Club	Signal Mountain	10:00:00 AM	3:30:00 PM

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Blood Assurance in Critical Shortage, Donors Desperately Needed
April 28th, 2011 10:01 AM

Blood Assurance in need of O negative, B negative donations

Thursday, April 28, 2011 - Blood Assurance, the regional blood center based in Chattanooga, Tennessee has issued a critical appeal for blood donors. 600 volunteer donors are needed today and tomorrow in order to supply the over 50 hospitals in the area with life saving blood.

Rick Youngblood, President & CEO of Blood Assurance said �the pending storms delayed blood donors from coming in to our centers for the last couple of days, so the supply has become critically low. We don�t know who has survived the storms or what injuries they will have, but we need to be prepared.�

All Blood Assurance locations are open today, except for the center in Fort Payne, Alabama due to power outages. Today bloodmobiles will be located at:

Walmart Fort Oglethorpe 10:30 a.m. - 3:00 p.m.
Walmart Gunbarrel 10:00 a.m. � 3:00 p.m.
Walmart Dayton 10:30 a.m. � 3:30 p.m.
Walmart Soddy Daisy 10:30 a.m. � 3:30 p.m.
Walmart Ooltewah 10:00 a.m. � 3:00 p.m.

Blood Assurance pleads to anyone able to get to a blood center or bloodmobile to do so immediately.

For more information, go to www.bloodassurance.org or call 800-962-0628 or follow our Facebook page.

Media Contacts

Linda Hisey
423-667-5685
LindaHisey@BloodAssurance.org

Lacey Wilson
423-240-6930
LaceyWilson@BloodAssurance.org

Bonnie Phillips
423-322-5821
BonniePhillips@BloodAssurance.org

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