These are facts that the Baton
Rougemedical community faces every day,
and hospitals and clinics turn to blood donor
centers to meet the needs of their patients.
Baton Rouge has five blood donor centers:
Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Cen-
ter’s Blood Donor Center, LifeShare Blood
Centers, United Blood Services, Ochsner,
andThe Blood Center, which is based inNew
Orleans but serves Baton Rouge as well.
These centers all work toward a central
goal: maintaining the local blood supply to
care for patients in the Baton Rouge area.
These centers have several ways to go about
collecting blood, but they face challenges
along the way.
Building the Blood Supply
Healthcare providers gather blood for
patients in a variety of ways. Blood cen-
ters throughout Baton Rouge collect blood
within the center itself during set office
hours, which includes calling
regular donors to encour-
age them to come in to
donate.
Blood centers also set up
blood drives throughout the com-
munity for an outreach approach.
These include mobile blood drives that
employ buses and vans. Mobile blood drives
actually account for about 65% of all blood
collected by Our Lady of the Lake’s Blood
Donor Center.
Blood collection organizations host blood
drives in a variety of places, from schools
and churches to local businesses and retail
stores. Businesses, for example, might host
a blood drive in the office and encourage
their employees to donate blood while on
the clock.
Companies in the oil field and petrochem-
ical industries have been particularly vital