First. Full disclosure, I work for the blood center.
Thank you for donating. Especially platelets. They are becoming more and more difficult to collect and have ready for patients.
Second: paid plasma centers: they pay up to $1000/month for you to sell your plasma to them. They then resell it to European/Asian pharmaceutical companies to create intravenous immunoglobulin. The USA supplies roughly 70% of the worlds plasma for fractionation into IVIG. Why you may ask most of the world does not allow for payment for plasma even if it isn't being used in a transfusion. Sooo, Americans are always needing $$, so the world buys our paid plasma and then turns it into IVIG, which then the rest of the world buys up, mainly Asia/China. While it does create a necessary treatment for those with immune disorders, Plasma given at a plasma center is not used in hospitals for patient transfusions.
Third: there have been many iterations of the incentive/thank you for donors over the years. I wish we could just open our doors and have people come give and be able to meet hospital demand, but unfortunately we are faced with a continuing deficit in collections, especially platelets. The typical platelet donor is an over 55 male. This demographic is aging out of eligibility and we are not replacing donors from younger demographics, partly due decreased awareness within the demographic, but mainly due to plasma centers. We can not compete, and can not pay for platelets or blood products. The donor points you receive when donating can get you up to a $50 gc or you can choose from a multitude of other thank you items within the points store.
We have tried various gift card (gas, food specific), point value increase increments, and have settled on this system for this year to see if we can sustain collections to meet patient needs. Otherwise, we have to try and buy platelets from other blood centers, and each unit can cost up to $1000.
The apheresis machines, collection bags and employee skill set, along with the storage, bacterial testing, infectious disease testing and shelf life of 7 days from collection are all cost multipliers. $50 in point values seems like a small price to pay if it means patients lives are saved, and we are able to maintain operations as a not for profit blood center.
Last: there are some places exploring paid platelets. Unfortunately, the $, and requisite testing and other processing that must be done (pathogen reduction, etc) are all costly and honestly not wanted by people receiving a blood transfusion. The altruistic nature and honesty of donors on the health questionnaire is critical to the safety of the blood supply and people are more willing to lie about what they did and with who they did it and when, if there are stacks of $100 on the line.
TLDR: thank you for giving, please continue and I'm glad you enjoyed the GC. Gig 'em
