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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