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

[ruthling.livejournal.com]

they have regular locations where they take blood at stated hours every week. The website will tell you where. Some hospitals do it, too. I think Mount Auburn has one, if you need local/T accessible. I think there are red cross locations in Kendall and near Chinatown as well, but the website should tell you that.

[emcicle.livejournal.com]

Children's Hospital in Boston does their own blood donation/collection and the blood is used in house for patients in need. That's where I do my donating when I'm not pregnant! :)

[docorion.livejournal.com]

Most hospitals will be happy to collect your donation, especially the ones in town. BU Medical Center (which isn't as T accessible as it ought to be, sadly) does so (disclaimer: I work for the BUMC), and MGH and Tufts will also be happy to hook you up. And as someone else mentioned, Children's Hospital.

[sonofabish.livejournal.com]

I understand the bike path to Davis is a place where they'd be quite willing to relieve you of some of your blood.

[rmd.livejournal.com]

mt auburn has a blood donation center as well.

[moireach.livejournal.com]

I second the Children's Hospital recommendation; WAY more painless than any Red Cross blood drive I've ever been to, since they're used to doing it every day. I was shocked the first time I went at how smoothly and painlessly the whole thing went. I have really small veins, which inevitably result in a lot of trouble at a blood drive, but hey, when you're a hospital used to dealing with little kids, it turns out that's not a problem.

[jennifer.livejournal.com]

Mount Auburn, MGH, Children's Hospital, and I believe Dana-Farber Cancer Institute all have blood donation centers.

[publius513.livejournal.com]

*snicker*

[sunshineyellow.livejournal.com]

I just moved here, so where is Dedham? Anyway, this is the Red Cross headquarters for all things blood-related in New England. You can make an appointment there.

http://www.newenglandblood.org/

[punkramen.livejournal.com]

Brigham & Women's Hospital (at Brigham Circle on the E line), Dana Farber, and Children's Hospital all have donation centers. I work at BWH, and have had good experiences with the donation center. Here's the necessary information:

http://labmed.bwh.harvard.edu/blood/donation/index.html

[offroadpath.livejournal.com]

If you're inclined to donate platelets instead of whole blood, the Kraft Blood Donor Center at Dana Farber is great. Amazingly awesome staff, nice facility and a fine movie selection.

[redcolumbine.livejournal.com]

And if you donate at the hospital, the hospital doesn't have to buy the blood from the Red Cross.

[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.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Dedham is 14 miles from Somerville, but I'm sure that would work for someone who works/lives south of Boston.

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Do you have any experience with the one at Mt Auburn? That is the one I am most likely to be able to get to after work.

[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 .

[boblothrope.livejournal.com]

A lot of the community drives happen on a regular basis. For example, the Countryside Chapel in Lexington has a drive once a month. You can only donate every 8 weeks, so it's easy to donate at one of these periodic drives repeatedly. See http://newenglandblood.org/mass/mobileschedule.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)...

[jenskot.livejournal.com]

Seconded, for all of the above reasons. Plus, I'm fairly certain they're open past 6pm, you can do platelet donations (which benefits multiple children and they aren't picky about your having a common blood type or anything), and they give you little bicep massages if your arm cramps up! Oh, and if you catch them early Friday morning, they have leftover Au Bon Pain... yummmay.... :D

[jenskot.livejournal.com]

Eh, speaking as a native to Metro Boston, that's a PITA to commute from Somerville to Dedham for a blood donation. If you're going to do ARC, its best just to wait for a drive to show up.

Bravo!

[first-clark.livejournal.com]

Very commendable of you to seek a convenient venue to increase your donation frequency. All the above, including the bike path snark! I'm a regular (every other week) Friday morning donor at the ARC Apheresis Donor Center in Boston, easily accessible by T, and with evening and weekend hours: http://newenglandblood.org/mass/boston.htm . See you there?

I also coordinate several community drives for the ARC, MGH, and Childrens Hospital. I schedule five Saturday drives a year in Arlington Center with the ARC at 56 day intervals so that those whole blood donors who find it convenient can come to all of them if they choose. More than two dozen people come to all five, and more than 75 people come to three or four a year. The next one is May 9th. See you there?

As several respondents pointed out, while the CBER (FDA & CDC) make the overall rules, and tried several years ago to impose uniformity on the ARC and all the other entities in the blood biz, slight differences have crept in, especially for individual hospitals who collect, process, and then distribute all in house. While the ARC and the AABB and many hospitals appealed to the CBER for sanity and science based epidemiology to be the basis of the sexual behavior screening, if it isto be used at all, the CBER refused, so the one respondent who suggested otherwise is mistaken, unfortunately.

If you're SFnal, Arisia now hosts a day with MGH and a day with Childrens, and Readercon will host MGH this year for the first time. See you there?

Finally, if you prefer to continue to shop around for the best, most convenient experience, just call 1-800-GIVE-LIFE every other month and try new places. Enjoy!

Re: Bravo!

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

I'll be out of town in April, so if I don't make it before then, you may very well see me at your Saturday drive in May. What a great idea! I'm also trying to arrange a blood drive at work, but there's some red tape involved and I want to donate myself in the meantime. Thanks for the wealth of information, donation is important and having options makes it that much easier to do :)

Re: Bravo!

[madscientist01.livejournal.com]

Also, I had to google SFnal. I guess that means I'm not ;) but I found out yesterday they officially changed the name of the "SciFi" channel to "SyFy." You learn something new every day!

Re: Bravo!

[first-clark.livejournal.com]

I've been putting together drives since I was an undergrad and would be glad to help you get started if a hand would be a help.

[wonkywheels.livejournal.com]

I used to donate blood to Mount Auburn when they came to my old office (just down the street from the hospital), but I've never donated at the hospital itself. The people were very nice, though!

[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.

[junesrose.livejournal.com]

Yes, they do. There is no way near enough blood donated to the hospitals to meet the demand. But, it sure does decrease the amounts.

[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.