Donating Blood

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

I know I can go to the American Red Cross website, find the nearest blood drive, and donate. But I'm wondering if there's someplace that people go regularly to do this? I'd like to give blood more often and I thought there might be something easier & more routine than just finding the latest blood drive at joe schmoe library/church/ymca and having to go to a new place every time. Thanks!

Edit: Anyplace that is near Somerville would be preferred. I work in Lexington so I can't make it to Longwood or anywhere downtown before 6pm at the earliest. I know there are a ton of hospitals downtown but I just can't get there.

Comments

[upsidown.livejournal.com]

Plus, many hospitals have more reasonable rules than the ARC. I.e., you can be a gay man who's been to England for more than 6 months.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

And no long line to wait in, either.

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

Most of those rules are enforced by the FDA, so blood donation centers can't be less restrictive. See http://www.fda.gov/Cber/faq/bldfaq.htm .

[upsidown.livejournal.com]

Are those rules mandatory if the blood is staying within the hospital's own supply? I swear that a local blood center let me donate after the red cross wouldn't (my crime was living in Germany for a year)...

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

How long ago was this? And, how long after your rejection from ARC were you able to donate at the blood center? Things change so frequently within the system that you could have been caught mid-policy change.

I remember about 15 yrs ago rejecting people who had had the recent flu vaccine cause it was causing cross reactions in some of the viral testing (for example, people coming up postive for Hepatitis, when they really weren't, etc) This only occured for a few weeks, since the FDA recognized the problem and testing centers were able to finagle a work-around.

Anyhow, just a tid-bit.

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

As a medical technologist working in a blood bank for the past 25 yrs, all rules and regs are dictated by the AABB, and the FDA. I haven't worked in a donor room for years, but I'm pretty certain the same rules apply no matter where you donate.

Oh and I worked at Mt. Auburn, so um, yeah, we got a blood donor program.