ROCHELLE — January is National Blood Donor Month, and Rochelle Community Hospital and the Rock River Valley Blood Center are working to raise awareness to increase donations amid a nationwide and regional blood shortage. 

RRVBC is the sole provider of blood to RCH. Donations made at blood drives in the region and at RRVBC’s two fixed Rockford sites remain local to help patients in need at RCH and healthcare facilities in the area. Locally, RRVBC supplies blood to 14 hospitals in the region. Because blood has a short shelf-life, fresh donations must constantly be collected.

“We have a wonderful working relationship with RCH,” RRVBC Donor Recruiter John Seger said. “Our hospital services team is always able to get the blood products down to Rochelle in a very quick and timely manner. They've been an awesome partner for us in hosting blood drives over recent years and donating for our new mobile bloodmobile, which we take out to different sites around the community to do mobile blood drives. It's so nice to have that relationship, because so many of the hospitals we work with can be difficult with hosting drives and getting orders in on time and at Rochelle, we never have that problem.”

RCH Lab Manager Karen Ravnikar said that the hospital keeps a certain number of units of blood on hand to be ready for emergencies and stock is rotated out every two weeks to keep blood always available. 

RCH keeps a larger supply of blood at the hospital than its size suggests due to its proximity to Interstates 39 and 88 in case of vehicle accidents. Amid the blood shortage in the healthcare industry, RCH has seen less impacts than other hospitals.

“For our community, it's important,” Ravnikar said. “People need blood for various reasons, not just for a car accident. Cancer patients often need blood. People that have GI bleed problems or anemia for whatever reason also need it too. We're glad RRVBC does a good job of keeping its stocks up. It's a smaller place, but they do really well with donor recruitment and keeping the supply up. We've not had some of the pain points that some of the bigger facilities have had. We do have shortages now and then. And right now it's O negative blood, which is the crucial universal donor. That is concerning, but at least we've had a pretty good supply and we can get what we need.”

Trauma patients that are transported to RCH are typically transferred to a larger hospital, but they’re stabilized at RCH, and that requires blood transfusion. In the case of a shortage of blood, RCH can get what it needs from RRVBC, Ravnikar said. She said RRVBC’s smaller size and local roots have made for a productive relationship. 

“It's been very helpful that RRVBC is small, and the fact that they've been able to keep up with that demand is amazing,” Ravnikar said. “It's not a huge corporation. They're small and they're very client-friendly. They get us what we need. If we have a complicated test, we also reference our testing out to them and they're easy to communicate with.”

The blood shortage has been seen in recent years, and Seger said it started to be seen in the months following the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. In early 2020 during the shutdown, blood donations were actually in a good place with numbers, due to them being exempt and one of the few activities people could leave their homes to take part in.

But, Seger said when the country started to open back up, blood donations dropped. That cause for concern has remained for organizations like RRVBC.

“It seemed like when people went back to their normal lives and things started opening up again, we just lost so many donors,” Seger said. “And people haven't come back. We're still trying to figure out why that is and how we can get them back. We're fighting not only an aging demographic that we have that typically donates, but trying to get younger people to donate and finding new people, communities and demographics.”

Seger praised the community of Rochelle for its willingness to donate at local blood drives, which typically take place a couple of times a month in the Hub City. RRVBC also serves Rockford hospitals that cater to Rochelle-area residents with more serious conditions, so local donations follow those in need up to Rockford. 

Blood centers typically see lower donation numbers in the winter months, especially following the holiday season. Seger said that’s due to winter weather and snow storms forcing the cancellation of blood drives. The blood need doesn’t stop or slow down in the winter. 

“We have enough on the shelves right now to maintain our current needs,” Seger said. “But if there is an uptick in trauma or accidents or a big injury event, we could be in dire straits. Last year when the Apollo Theater in Belvidere had its roof collapse, we just barely had enough blood to cover that. Another event like that, you don't want to think about it, but we want to make sure we have blood on the shelves to be prepared for things like that. The truth of the matter is, we might not be able to handle such a big influx of trauma at this moment.”

Seger said his efforts have not only included finding more people to donate blood, but also educating the public on donating and blood needs. By law the blood that patients receive in hospitals can only come from donated sources.

Amid the blood shortage, RRVBC is trying new avenues such as incentive programs and expanding to southern Wisconsin. The blood center needs about 800 donations per week to ensure that it meets its needs. 

“We're not at that now, but we're not far off,” Seger said. “Even if five percent of people who are eligible to donate do so, we would never have a shortage again. It's not 'All hope is lost.' There's definitely a light at the end of the tunnel. But right now, we definitely are in dire need of more donations.”

Individuals feeling healthy and well are encouraged to schedule a blood donation appointment at rrvbc.org, on the myRRVBC app, or by calling 815-965-8751. Organizations also are encouraged to call about hosting blood drives to help support the community's needs.

“Everyone has someone in their life that needs blood,” Seger said. “Donating with us makes that blood stay local to help people here. It's the easiest way to make our community a better place to live. Sometimes people can be down on the communities they live in. People might not always love where they live. This is the easiest way to help your community. It's free, it doesn't take long and it's easy. And it's a way to feel good about yourself and make Rochelle and Northern Illinois a better place to live.”