News Release September 02, 2005

Bonfils Blood Center’s Role in Katrina Relief—UPDATE 9/27/05

To our community:

Bonfils Blood Center appreciates your willingness to donate blood to support the needs of the victims of hurricane Katrina as well as patients in Colorado.

Our appointment center will coordinate a donation schedule that directly supports the immediate needs of the victims. To schedule a donation and to find a blood drive or donor center near you, please call (303) 363-2300 or (800) 365-0006 opt. 2 or, click the Donate page.

The following information outlines Bonfils’ ongoing role in supporting this disaster. The most up-to-date information will be posted in bold as it is received.

Bonfils Blood Center, in partnership with America’s Blood Centers (ABC) will ship nearly 300 units of blood to Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center Wednesday, Sept. 27. Bonfils is on-call to support the blood center if additional blood products are needed.
In a time of crisis such as this, the role of a blood center is to evaluate the true need for blood while at the same time managing the blood supply so as to not have too much or too little blood available for patients.
Bonfils continues to work with its blood center partners to assess blood needs in the Gulf Region.
On Sept. 4, Hemo-Net, a Bonfils subsidiary and application service provider, restored The Blood Center’s email server making email available for all blood center employees.
On Sunday, Aug. 28, Bonfils was asked by Brian Gannon, CEO of The Blood Center of New Orleans to provide immediate support to the victims of hurricane Katrina. Bonfils continues to communicate with Gannon on his community’s needs.
Bonfils sent a small shipment of blood to Jackson, Miss. on Wednesday, Aug. 31.
Bonfils will send more than 100 units of blood to the University of Alabama Hospital Friday, Sept. 2. The hospital is expecting 25 – 40 patients per day from the affected Gulf Coast Region. The conditions of the patients are unknown at this time. Additional shipments of blood are anticipated.
Bonfils is working directly with its partners at Blood Centers of America (BCA) which is a cooperative of community blood centers from across the U.S., to send additional blood products to the Gulf Coast Region.
Bonfils is investigating the opportunity to hire some of The Blood Center’s displaced employees.
Hemo-Net, an application service provider and Bonfils subsidiary, is working to restore The Blood Center’s IT functions. The Blood Center’s partnership with Hemo-Net dates back to August 2003, when the company was contracted to provide protection to the blood center’s computer systems and databases by storing pertinent donor information in offsite locations.
Sixteen of The Blood Center’s 17 donor centers are inoperable.
The Blood Center will soon begin collecting blood in its Baton Rouge, La. facility. However, this one site is not able to meet the blood collection needs of the region.
The clean-up and rebuilding efforts following the hurricane will take several months, so you can be sure blood will be needed to help those communities for several month as well.
Hundreds of blood donors have responded over the last few days to help the victims and more than a thousand have scheduled donations appointments.
Blood has a limited shelf life of only 42 days, therefore we ask that you schedule your appointment for a few weeks from now to ensure your blood will go to a patient who needs it.