Huntington Hospital Experiences Continuing Blood Shortage

Huntington Hospital, and hospitals across the nation, are experiencing a blood shortage.

“We are experiencing a shortage of O Negative and O Positive Blood. Please help our patients this holiday season by donating — all blood types are needed,” the hospital said in a statement on Monday.

According to media reports, blood banks across the country are struggling to maintain their emergency stocks, with this month’s national supply dropping to the lowest in a decade.

According to the American Red Cross, which supplies approximately 40 percent of blood in the US, the shortage is due primarily to a lack of healthy donors.

“This is the biggest challenge that I’ve seen in my 30 years in the business,” Chris Hrouda, the president of biomedical services at the American Red Cross, told The New York Times. “We simply like to keep three days of inventory. We’re struggling to keep one day.”

On Monday, Cedars-Sinai issued an urgent plea to healthy residents in the Los Angeles area to donate blood as a result of the critical shortage.

The holiday months are traditionally a difficult time for blood banks and the shortage has intensified in the midst of the pandemic, which has halted community blood drives at schools and other locations.

The American Red Cross and other blood suppliers are struggling to restore their inventories in the wake of serious shortages experienced over the past year, according to Cedars.

As one of the few Level I trauma centers in Los Angeles, Cedars-Sinai patients receive transfusions of more than 30,000 units of red blood cells, 7,000 units of platelets and 11,000 units of plasma every year, according to the medical center.

Those who are in good health and otherwise eligible are encouraged to donate blood and platelets for patients at Cedars-Sinai to help ease the strain on the national blood supply.

If you are currently eligible to donate to Huntington Hospital, please call the Blood Donor Center to schedule a donation at (626) 397-5422.

To schedule a donation at Cedars-Sinai, call Blood Donor Services at 310-423-4170 or email blooddonorservices@cshs.org.