Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Giving Blood and CRM

This past Friday I gave blood at the regular Red Cross stop off at our office complex. If you've ever given blood you've experienced the normal process of reading about fifty questions about your past experiences and then answering the same questions in person. I have a Red Cross donor card which I thought would help speed up the donating process, not so. I'm sure there are all kinds of legal issues with the need to constantly re-ask these questions, but I'd personally love to see the knowledgebase get smarter.

Instead of have you been outside of the country in the past three years, how about have you traveled outside the country since March 2005 the last donation you made?

Could you answer the survey online the day before you donate, then have the nurse review the answers at the time of donation?

I assume that the Red Cross runs different types of tests on your blood, why not make the results available on their website? Maybe graphing them in a times series?

Can they track how your blood is used? Wouldn't it be great to know how your blood was used? How many adults and kids were saved? Maybe that would encourage people to donate on a more frequent basis.

Please note I still encourage everyone to give blood.

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