Call it a fast lane for blood donors:
Memorial Blood Centers
(MBC) recently unveiled an innovative web-based system that allows
donors to answer health history questions from their homes or offices,
instead of in person.
The iDonate Interview program is designed to increase efficiency for MBC, and speed donors through the process.
The
nonprofit is regulated by the Food and Drug Administration, which
requires that every blood donation be subject to rigorous screening
techniques, including a health history questionnaire from donors. The
interview process could be a pain, though, for donors that come in
frequently, since inputting the information at the donation site takes
about 20 minutes.
"It was frustrating for people who have
answered those same questions multiple times," says Wendy Capetz, MBC's
director of marketing and development. "When their answers are always
the same, they should be able to go through this process faster."
MBC
worked for over a year to tweak the program so that it could be highly
secure, user friendly, and compliant with FDA regulations.
Using
the program, donors can complete an online form, print out a receipt
with a bar code, and bring it into the donation site. That lets them
skip the usual registration and health screening steps, and go straight
to donation and the subsequent relax-with-cookies time.
Capetz
says, "Because it takes less time for the donation process, we're hoping
that it will increase the amount of donations in general. The feedback
has been great from people who've used it. We just got a comment on our
website that the program 'totally rocks.' You can't get better than
that."
Source: Wendy Capetz, Memorial Blood Centers
Writer: Elizabeth Millard