Dignity Health St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital (SJPVH) and St. John’s Regional Medical Center (SJRMC) have partnered with Vitalant in a proactive effort to encourage community members to donate blood. Vitalant is calling on the community to come forward and give blood to bolster local and national blood supplies. The process takes only 45 minutes; each donation can save up to three lives.
The drive is scheduled for each hospital on the following dates:
St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital – Monday, July 13, 2020, 10 am – 2 pm in the Dignity Health Finance Building across the street from the former main hospital entrance, 2415 Antonio Drive, Camarillo.
St. John’s Regional Medical Center – Wednesday, July 15, 2020, 10 am – 3 pm at the Bloodmobile parked on the far end of the Emergency Department parking lot located at 1600 North Rose Ave., Oxnard at the corner of Rose Ave. and Socorro Way
There is currently a critical shortage of blood nationwide. All healthy community members are asked to take the time to donate. Community members wishing to donate are urged to sign up at www.blood4life.org. Do not donate if you are feeling ill.
In the wake of COVID-19 responses, Vitalant urges individuals to continue to donate blood and groups to organize blood drives, unless local public health officials specifically direct otherwise. Blood drives at schools, churches, community groups, and religious institutions—which contribute to more than 60% of the nation’s blood supply—have been all but canceled.
Despite the ongoing need, it is now especially challenging to recruit donors, which reduces Vitalant’s blood supply. Donations from O-negative donors, the universal blood type, are especially important. O-negative blood is currently in short supply, and platelet donations have a shelf-life of only five days and are always in high demand. However, donors of all types are critically needed.
All blood donors will receive COVID-19 Antibody testing with their donation. Testing facilities are taking extra precautions to protect staff and donors by implementing temperature checks, social distancing, continuous sanitation, and masking requirements.
About Dignity Health St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital and St. John’s Regional Medical Center
St. John’s Pleasant Valley Hospital in Camarillo and St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Oxnard are members of Dignity Health Central Coast, an integrated network of top quality hospitals, with physicians from the most prestigious medical schools, and comprehensive outpatient services – all recognized for quality, safety and service. Both hospitals are supported by an active philanthropic Foundation to help meet the growing health care needs of our communities. Hospitals in the Dignity Health Central Coast region also include Arroyo Grande Community Hospital in Arroyo Grande, French Hospital Medical Center in San Luis Obispo, Marian Regional Medical Center in Santa Maria. Learn more at DignityHealth.org/StJohnsRegional and DignityHealth.org/PleasantValley.
About Vitalant
Vitalant is one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit community blood service providers. It supplies comprehensive transfusion medicine services for nearly 1,000 hospitals and health care partners for patients in need across 40 states. Vitalant inspires local communities to serve others’ needs and transform lives through the selfless act of donating blood. Every day, almost 5,000 blood donations are needed to meet people’s needs throughout the country, and Vitalant’s 780,000 donors supply 1.8 million donations a year. In addition to blood products, Vitalant offers customers transfusion services, medical consulting, quality guidance, ongoing education, research, and more. For more information and to schedule a donation, visit vitalant.org or call 877-258-4825 (877-25-VITAL).
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