MEDIC Regional Blood Center – COVID-19 Update – Key Points
4/3/20
Reminder: Blood donation is a critical health care activity. MEDIC was established in 1958 and is an independent, nonprofit organization. We are not affiliated with the American Red Cross.
MEDIC Action Steps:
- Donors at the four donor centers will be seen by appointment only until further notice.
- As guidelines change and to continue to comply with social distancing guidelines, we are temporarily suspending mobile bus drives until further notice.
- Schedule an Appointment: Online at www.medicblood.org -> Click the donate tab and then on the center in which you’d like to donate. There is a link that to “click here” to schedule your appointment or call 865-524-3074.
- Masks for Collections Staff: As blood is an essential resource for the healthcare system, and in an abundance of caution to protect the health and wellness of both our donors and collections staff, we have implemented the use of N95 masks for our collections staff so that we can continue to collect blood through the COVID-19 situation.
- Wellness Check-In: Staff, donors and visitors undergo a daily check-in upon arrival at any facility or mobile drive.
- The check-in includes a temperature check.
- Temperature must be 99.5 degrees or less.
- Convalescent Plasma:
- An individual must have had a positive COVID-19 diagnosis via confirmed lab test.
- MEDIC will not be collecting convalescent plasma from community members who may have had a previous infection and believe that they had COVID-19 earlier this year or late last year.
- There is no blood center testing that MEDIC can do to confirm immunity to COVID-19 from an unknown past infection.
- Definition: Convalescent plasma treatment is the transfusion of plasma from someone who has recovered from an infection to someone suffering from it, in the hopes that the passive transfer of antibodies will help the patient fight off the infection.
- It will be weeks before this treatment is fully approved and implemented.
- Right now, there simply aren’t a lot of COVID-19 patients verified through testing, who have recovered symptom free, for an unspecified period of time, who would qualify in East Tennessee.
- MEDIC is not a healthcare provider and thus does not provide a coronavirus test nor do we test for COVID-19 antibodies.
- FDA Updates:
- The FDA reviewed recently completed studies and epidemiologic data and concluded that current policies for specific donor eligibility rules could be modified without compromising the safety of the blood supply.
- MEDIC is carefully evaluating options.
- The process to change our standard operating procedures and software will take time to implement.
- MEDIC will continue to prioritize the safety of our donors and the blood supply.