Rising demand for Houston-area blood transfusions sparks need for more donations

Officials with area nonprofit Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center said while the start of the school year has helped ease recent blood shortage concerns, the number of individuals in the Houston area in need of blood transfusions continues to rise.

The nonprofit provides blood to roughly 170 hospitals across 26 Texas counties, including Houston and its surrounding communities.

The overview

American Red Cross officials declared a nationwide blood shortage in September, citing a critically low blood supply level that had dropped nearly 25% since early August.

GCRBC Account Manager Katie Nippress said the nonprofit has around a two- to three-day supply of blood for local hospitals, but she noted maintaining that supply requires at least 1,000 blood donations per day.

Nippress said the GCRBC’s supply is faring better than the national numbers partially due to area hospitals catching up with elective surgeries that were postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

However, Nippress said Houston’s medical center and the area’s rising population have caused the demand for blood to continually rise.

A closer look

Last year, Nippress said GCRBC officials were struggling to keep up with the daily demand of blood for area hospitals, noting COVID-19 precautions such as social distancing made it more difficult for officials to schedule blood drive events.

“Everything is pretty much back to normal for all of our blood drives now,” she said. “We’re on top of cleaning and sanitizing as we always were even before COVID to make sure that it’s a safe experience for donors, but there’s a little bit less concern about COVID.”

While the blood supply has been steady, Nippress said the GCRBC tends to see dips in donation events at the end of the year due to the holidays.

“We have a growing population; we have an aging population; and we have the largest medical center complex in the entire world,” she said. “We’re seeing patients from other areas that come for expert care that maybe isn’t available in their area. Year after year, we’re continued to see more donations needed for more transfusions happening in our hospitals here.”

Get involved

While donation events held at schools have helped increase the GCRBC’s blood supply, Nippress said the nonprofit isn’t seeing the same number of events held by local businesses, churches and organizations.

Nippress said businesses and organizations interested in hosting an event need to have at least 20 donors sign up to participate. Additionally, the nonprofit requires about 50 feet of parking space for the GCRBC’s donor bus or a large empty space inside the building for officials to set up their equipment.

Nippress said the GCRBC makes hosting an event as easy as possible by providing:

• Flyers with QR codes for easy sign-ups
• Email templates to alert prospective donors about the event
• Signage directing donors to the site location
• Promotional material, such as blankets and T-shirts, to encourage participation

Nippress said every individual donation goes a long way in helping the nonprofit keep enough blood on the shelf for local use, especially near the end of the year.

“Just to reiterate, we need 1,000 blood donations every single day, 365 days a year,” she said. “It becomes really difficult to keep blood on the shelf [during the holiday season] because we lose so many donors during that time.”

For more information about hosting a blood drive event with the GCRBC, click here.