UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Monday, December 4.1995
5A
DONATIONS:
Continued from Page 1A.
The American Red Cross includes Lawrence as part of its Central Plains Blood Services Region, which is headquartered in Wichita. Ironically, Lawrence is the only area in the Central Plains region bled by the Red Cross that does not benefit directly. The Wichita center supplies blood and blood products to 110 hospitals in 93 counties in Kansas and Oklahoma, but Lawrence Memorial Hospital is not one of them.
Kalen Larson, director of communications with the Red Cross, is quick to point out that KU students come from all around and that the blood they donate could be helping family or friends back home.
The Wichita center needs to bring in a minimum of 1,800 units a week.
--said. "They are good donors, and," she added, "they are a captive audience."
The Red Cross' last KU drive produced 665 units during five days — more than one third of the Red Cross' weekly goal from only one source. In comparison, the last Lawrence city drive by the Red Cross produced less than 80 units a day.
"We do quite well at KU. They are good donors, and they are a captive audience."
Topeka Blood Bank officials can't help but look at the vibrant supply on the Hill with envy.
Each of those units of blood is tested extensively, then most are split into their three components — red blood cells, platelets and plasma. At Lawrence Memorial Hospital, the worth of one unit of whole blood in its most commonly used forms is $158.50 — $73.50 for red blood cells, $46 for random platelets and $39 for fresh, frozen plasma. By those numbers, which are similar to the Red Cross' prices, KU's last donation was worth more than $105,000. Platelets can run into hundreds of dollars a unit, depending on how they are used. Plasma has a wide range of uses and values, including making tetanus and rabies shots and in treatment for hemophilia and emphysema.
"I want on campus; I really do," said Adrian Evans, director of recruitment for the Topeka Blood Bank.
But for now, the Red Cross has the Topeka group shut out of the market. The Topeka Blood Bank has approached campus organizations to be sponsors for a KU drive, but those groups prefer to stay with the
Jo Byers Red Cross chapter manager
By Jo Byers, the Red Cross chapter manager in Lawrence, appreciates the value of having cornered the campus volunteer blood market.
"We do quite well at KU," Byers
Red Cross.
Why? Mostly because that is the way it always has been.
Katie Bickel, blood drive chair of the KU Panellenlic Association, said the organization has "no particular reason" for working with the American Red Cross.
"We are happy with the Red
Cross, so there is no reason to switch," she said. Panhellenic has been doing the blood drive with the Red Cross for 11 years. The vice president of philanthropic and community service, Becki Carl, was not even aware that the Topeka Blood Bank had sought a partnership.
"Panhellenic has worked with the Red Cross for years," said Debbie Wolff, recruitment coordinator for the Topea Blood Bank. "It is hard to get your foot in the door.
"We keep educating: 'Keep the local blood supply local.' We are trying to get more people aware that we are the sole suppliers for Lawrence Memorial."
The Topeka Blood Bank, a member of the American Association of Blood Banks, has supplied Lawrence Memorial Hospital since 1991, a message it tries to get out constantly.
"We consider ourselves a community blood center," said Kathy Boldt, collection supervisor for the Topeka Blood Bank.
LMH switched from the Red Cross to the blood bank so that it would be closer to its source of blood in case of an emergency. The Topeka Blood Bank was able to absorb the
hospital's needs without adding extra staff, but LMH uses more blood than Douglas County donates. Last year, the Topeka Blood Bank supplied LMH with 1,800 units of blood products. They collected only 1,100 units from the Lawrence area last year, even though donatii ins have increased 50 percent since August of 1994.
Unable to get on campus without a sponsor, Topeka Blood Bank still holds frequent drives in places such as the Lawrence Public Library.
They set up their couches and their medical supplies. Senior citizens stand by with paperwork, cookies and juice. A blue tarp is spread out under the portable couches, a subtle reminder of the substance they are dealing with and the potential for accidents.
Few of those who come in are KU students. Lawrence donors are older than average and only come in about twice a year, less than average. But the Topeka Blood Bank is grateful for all its donors.
"I'm not picky," said Boldt. "I'll take anybody as long as they are healthy."
Evans isn't planning to declare open-market warfare to get to the KU blood supply any time soon.
"We believe in everything the American Red Cross does," she said. "It is hard to knock a group like that."
And being in the same business, she understands the Red Cross' motives.
"I want there to be blood if me or my family are hurt," she said. However, she had no idea whether the Red Cross served Salina.
Sara Crow, Salina senior, donated blood at a recent campus drive.
their blood is going when they donate.
"I worry about those who say, 'I want to donate blood (to the Red Cross) for my fraternity brother, for my friend, so it will be there if he needs it.' Wrong! It is not going to be there."
"I suppose it is real tough for them to walk away from Lawrence and its donors. They are young, healthy donors," Evans said.
Most students don't know where
"I want to increase our presence in Lawrence and at KU and to increase awareness," Evans said. "It is frustrating to me that people are misinformed about where the blood goes. I view that as my fault."
"If somebody needs it, it doesn't matter," said blood donor Jennifer Dlabal, Manhattan senior, who also was unclear what would be done with her blood.
Even students who sell their blood think it goes to local hospitals.
But Topeka keeps trying.
--more than $234 million a year to donors, and blood is a growing, healthy industry. Like any business, plasma centers vie for territories and markets and product flow. Plasma can be donated twice a week, but when someone donates whole blood, they cannot donate plasma in blood units.
Wayne Sharp, manager of NABI, estimates that only about 30 percent of NABI customers understand what it does and where the plasma goes, at least at first.
NABI benefits from this misunderstanding and misplaced altruism.
"I have a hard time putting it in market and territorial terms."
NABI exists solely for profit. Its plasma donation centers offer lifesaving products — at a price. Blood is big business. Plasma centers pay
Adriane Evans
Topeka Blood Bank
director of recruitment
for 56 days. NABI wants to keep people away from volunteer blood banks for its own economic health.
"Sure, we're direct competition," Sharp said. "Red Cross had a satellite office in Lawrence. I believe we ran them out of town. It wasn't cost efficient for them."
Red Cross officials agree their Lawrence donation center was not cost efficient but deny that its closing was because of NABI competition.
NABI competes by offering what blood banks can't — ready cash, up to $400 a month in some circumstances. The Lawrence NABI doles out more than half a million dollars to donors a year. Blood banks sometimes offer incentives, too, but they usually are of meager value, such as coupons or coffee mugs that people
"We are helping humanity," Sharp said, "but we are dealing in units of mankind that we have to make a profit on."
are given whether they donate or not.
Blood money is a strong advantage in the battle for territory. NABI gets about 750 donations a week from about 400 donors who are not going to blood banks.
But offering money also carries its risks.
Just looking at Ashley Diers' pierced tongue and tattooed forehead, it is clear she may be in the high-risk group.
Part of the donation process for both blood and plasma banks is a detailed and extremely personal questionnaire. Questions about sexual practices, drug usages and recent tattoos or piercings are used to screen for AIDS and other diseases, especially hepatitis.
Diers has lied on her questionnaire about when she was tattooed so she could donate plasma, and she says she lied frequently.
"I just did it for the extra money," she said. Diers claims to know a lot of people who lie just to get some beer money and get drunk easier.
"Almost anybody who goes in there with piercings is lying," she believes.
Sharp is aware people lie to donate.
If we thin-
someone is
being dishon-
est, we have the
right to refuse,
he said. "But
we're not going
to say someone
is lying because
they look a little
different."
NABI, like blood banks, rigorously tests each unit of blood before passing it on to the consumer. But people do-
not actually donating, you are seing. Only volunteer blood is given to hospitals."
Larson, of the Red Cross, notes that "when you give plasma, you are
"They are a competition," she said. "Our donors give for altruistic reasons."
nating whole blood are less likely to lie on their questionnaires. Diers never has donated whole blood and doesn't plan to. She has no reason
"Donating blood is not at the top of the list of 'Things I want to do today," said Topela Blood Bank's Evans. "To ensure safety, we keep the incentives low. People who donate blood for us do it for all the right reasons. It is a lifesaving gift."
However, NABI's Sharp does not necessarily believe there is a shortage.
Larson admits the Red Cross is feeling the competition. The Red Cross is having a blood shortage right now and Larson thinks the boom of plasma centers is at least contributing to that shortage.
The Red Cross may be a charity, but contrary to popular belief, it never gives blood away whether there be famine, flood or war. The only blood anyone gets free is the volume they started with. Refills cost money. The money the Red Cross and the Topeka Blood Bank earn is not for profit, though. It is for cost recovery. Blood banks charge hospitals what it takes to cover the cost of processing the blood.
"It's just like any business," he said. "A tactic is to put urgency on a demand for customers. Just like McDonald's, they are in the business to make money."
Through all the talk of competition and territories, money and advertising, Evans keeps a very
"...We are dealing in units of mankind that we have to make a profit on."
Wayne Sharp manager of NABI
strong sense of what she is dealing in — human blood.
"It's a market, but I just can't look at it that way," she said. "To me, it is a very personal commitment that has an unbelievable, immediate impact. Ask someone to roll up their sleeves and give of themselves, I
have a hard time putting it in market and territorial terms."
Robert Tabor, Lawrence lawyer,
however, is under no delusions
about the blood he is offering to a
blood bank.
"It is a commodity like everything else," he said as the technicians fussed over the needle in his arm. "Not morbid as much as it is reality based. Just as the health care industry is an industry, blood is a commodity."
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