Impact of alternative strategies to improve the pool of blood donation by off-hour donation: A pilot study and its future prospects

BACKGROUND: The escalating need for blood component due to increasing accidents and surgeries are always challenging for blood banks and hospitals. In this fast and busy world, collecting blood from a healthy and voluntary donor is quite challenging due to time constraints. Many blood donors who wish to donate blood were unable to go to the blood bank because of simultaneous operational timings of the blood bank and office hours of the donors. We dealt with this concern by extending the donation hours and also started collecting blood on the weekends following LAARC (Listen, Acknowledge, Assess, Respond, Confirm) methodology as a pilot project for improving blood donor convenience and satisfaction at the blood bank. METHODOLOGY: It was a prospective observational pilot study conducted at the government tertiary care institute in the Department of Transfusion Medicine from December 2018 to June 2019. All blood donations were made as per the guidelines laid down by the Drug and Cosmetic Act. The donation timings were divided as office-hour donations (8 am to 5 pm on weekdays) and off-hours donations (5 pm to 8 pm, weekends and holidays). RESULTS: In this pilot project, over 7 months out of a total of 1,591 donations, 664 donations (41.73%) were done during the off-hours. The donor experiences were pleasing, and they felt extra cared due to the convenient donation timings. CONCLUSIONS: Increasing the donation base needs more donor-friendly timings for the pleasant donation experience without hampering their work. More extensive studies should be conducted to include such strategies for increasing voluntary blood donation.