OMAHA, Neb. (KMTV) — Believe it or not, with no surgeries being performed these last couple of weeks, the blood reserve at the Nebraska Community Blood Bank is just at an adequate level.
Depending on the amount of surgeries and the type, more blood is needed.
Although blood donations are needed, you can no longer just walk up and donate. You have to make an appointment and appointments are set further apart to keep a limited amount of people inside a donation center.
"We could see a greater use for blood, and that is all blood and blood type products," said Erica Busta with the Nebraska Community Blood Bank. "With hospitals starting to restart, a lot of those surgeries that were postponed, we are foreseeing that the need for blood is going to increase; we really need people to continue to donate. We we need to have those supplies available ahead of time."
They are specifically low on B- blood.
If you do have any concerns about donating blood, they have changed their process so you spend the least amount of time in the donation center.
"It's called I-Donate," Busta said. "It is on our website, and you must fill it out the day of your appointment. You can't fill it our before, because the first question is "How do you feel today?" It is all of those FDA-mandated questions."
If you don't have access to a computer, you can fill it out at the donation center.
Temperatures will be taken before you are allowed to donate, and masks are required. If you don't have a mask, they will provide one for you.
It takes less than an hour to donate. Nebraska Community Blood Bank is a community blood bank, so 100% of the donations stay local.
You can also make an appointment online.
