DES MOINES, Iowa — The LifeServe Blood Center is one of hundreds of organizations across the state facing unprecedented and critical staff shortages that are causing the blood supply to dip to alarmingly low levels, a spokesperson said Tuesday.
The staff shortage is impacting the blood center’s ability to hold mobile blood drives, and the company said it is shifting operations in order to use staff resources as efficiently and effectively as possible. The LifeServe Blood Center is urging people to schedule appointments to give blood at their local donor center to boost the blood supply.
“In lieu of holding numerous on-site mobile blood drives — which represent more than half of the blood collected by the organization — blood collection efforts will be focused at our nine donor center locations while we actively recruit, hire and train new team members,” said Danielle West, director of public relations and marketing at LifeServe. “As the sole supplier of blood and blood products to more than 120 hospitals across Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota, we need community support to ensure that our medical partners have access to the blood products they need.”
As the nonprofit, community-based blood supplier in this region, the LifeServe Blood Center will work to ensure the adequacy of the community blood supply, West said.
“This unprecedented staffing shortage, coupled with lower than normal blood donor turnout, is impacting our blood supply,” she said. “In fact, donor numbers are lower now than during the pandemic. Currently, we have about one day’s supply of certain blood types, and our normal range is three to five days.”
Schedule a blood donation appointment online at lifeservebloodcenter.org or call 800-287-4903.
