Blood donation site opens this week

Giving blood just got easier for Lowcountry residents. Rather than wait for a mobile blood drive, donors can now roll up their sleeves at a new collection center opening Wednesday in Beaufort County.

The only permanent donation site in the area, The Blood Alliance at Beaufort Memorial Hospital -- formerly known as Lowcountry Community Blood Center -- offers donors a comfortable, convenient location to give blood. The newly renovated center at 990 Ribaut Road, Suite 101, in Beaufort will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesdays and Thursdays and 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays.

"We're hoping the center will encourage more people to donate blood," said Michael Mathews, manager of The Blood Alliance's Savannah and Beaufort operations. "As interest increases, we'll expand our hours of collection."

The sole provider of blood for Beaufort Memorial Hospital, The Blood Alliance had been operating a donation center out of a small room in the hospital complex since 2005. The retired quarters offered enough space for just one bed.

Recognizing the need to expand, the hospital renovated a 1,160-square-foot suite formerly used by a medical supply store across the street from Beaufort Medical Plaza.

The new center features two beds and two private exam rooms where blood pressure and other vital signs are checked before a donor's blood is drawn. It's staffed by phlebotomists from The Blood Alliance, a nonprofit community blood bank that provides blood products to Beaufort Memorial, Memorial University Medical Center in Savannah and several hospitals and medical facilities in northeast Florida.

In addition to the permanent donor site, The Blood Alliance provides mobile donation units for offsite blood drives throughout Beaufort County. Collections in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, 2009, provided 94 percent of the blood needed by the hospital -- up from 61 percent the previous year.

"Since partnering with The Blood Alliance, our goal has been to collect as much blood from local donors as our patients use each month," said Beaufort Memorial Donor Resource Consultant Sallie Stone. "We're just about there."

Stone credits the improvement in the "self-sufficiency" rate to increased donations and an aggressive strategy established by the hospital to reduce blood transfusions. In the past 12 months, the Blood Conservation Program cut blood usage at Beaufort Memorial by 18 percent.

"You need to have a readily available supply of blood to carry on the business of the hospital, whether it's for elective surgery or emergencies," said the Beaufort Memorial Hospital Medical Director of Laboratories Dr. Brad Collins, who was the catalyst for the development of both the Blood Conservation Program and a local blood center to serve the needs of area patients, and serves as Chairman of The Blood Alliance. "The free-standing center is more accessible to the public. You can walk in or schedule an appointment. It makes it very convenient to donate blood."

Details and to make an appointment: 888-447-1479, www.thebloodalliance.com