Jeanette Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Does anyone have a unique way to keep platelet donors from leaving? How does staff interaction affect donors experience while they are donating? Do you think donors rather not feel like they have speak to staff while donating? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 We are just starting out with our platelet program so I don't have a lot of experience, but so far I think staff should take it case by case. Some people want to chat or hear all about the procedure (especially if it is their first time) others just want to read their book or watch TV. I am not sure what you meant by "keep platelet donors from leaving"... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted January 29, 2004 Author Share Posted January 29, 2004 As far as leaving I mean, any neat ways to keep donors coming back again and again. Do you do something special for new platelet donors to welcome them to the program or after the donation as a special thank you? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Every platelet donor receives a free pair of movie tickets in addition to the regular donor gift we are giving out at that time. Another promotion I just started advertising yesterday is for a special raffle. All platelets donors will be entered to win 6 tickets to a luxury suite at Brooklyn's minor league baseball team. There will be 6 winners. I think that a good experience is the best special welcome/thank you of all. We have one guy who comes biweekly and he said we treat him so well that he enjoys visiting us.On the other side, my husband tried to donate platelets once and had a miserable experience. I think the needle wasn't inserted properly and it hurt. He will never do that again. He still gives whole blood though.What is your program like? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted January 29, 2004 Author Share Posted January 29, 2004 You give movie passes out to the donors all the time or is that just a promotion for a while? Also, did you get the movie passes donated and the luxury suite tickets donated? We don't have a budget to buy any of that. We run different promotions throughout the year. Around Christmas, we offer free movie passes and this attracts many platelet donors. We have two Baxter e-chairs in our center and that has proved to increase our percentage of repeat donors both for new and regular donors. I have been able to get to know the donors and that has helped to create a personal touch also. Other events we do are for both wb and plt. donors such as shirts, massages, lunch, breakfast, ice cream, mary kay giveaways, and various raffles. The events and shirts attract donors but I am trying to find the best way to start a buddy program. The hard part is our budget and donors would want something in return for bringing a buddy in. Any suggestions? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 We give the movie passes out to platelet donors all year round. Last summer I tried a promo where all hospital employees who gave 2 pints of whole blood between June and September received movie passes. They loved it and it sure bumped up those tough summer donations. I think I am going to open it up the the community at large. (The employees were a test group.) I did buy the movie passes from working advantage from my budget. The hospital I work for owns the luxury box so they are giving me one game for this promotion.I wish I could get an E-Chair, but we don't have enough platelet donors yet and not enough money in the budget. We are trying to see if we can find a donor, but we haven't been able to find one. Since we work in a hospital directly, we do have extra incentives for our employees, including time off, special raffles, parking and cafeteria vouchers. Employees who refer donors receive extra raffle entries for each donor. We do not have any other buddy system. In your buddy system, they can donate platelets together? We only have one machine so they'd have to take turns and be here for a few hours. I am trying to think of ideas for a buddy system for you...maybe you can do a quarterly raffle. I raffle off a DVD/VCR combo quarterly and at this point you can get them for $100 at Costco. Would any of the area restaurants or diners give you anything. I am thinking that you could offer the buddies a free or discounted lunch so they can celebrate saving lives together after donating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted January 29, 2004 Author Share Posted January 29, 2004 If you are just starting out with the platelet program, it sure does sound like you have a very large budget. To offer 2 movie tickets all year round and raffles for 4 gifts valued at $100 each. We have free lunch donated from various resturants in boston every friday in march. Donors enjoy this. We have food donated throughout the year for other events also. Our employees are allowed 1 hour off, $5 coupons for the cafeteria or a free day to park at a garage in boston. Employees appreciate these gifts but are so used to them now that they want more. We have 4 chairs for platelet donors to donate on. Many days we only have 2 available due to staffing issues. We have grown a lot in the platelet area but it is hard to get new donors committed to it b/c of time constraints. We don't telerecruit our donors so we rely soley on our mailings and interactions with the donors. When did you start your program? What hospital do you work at? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 I don't work in a donor center but I was a platelet donor for a while at our local ARC. Other than movies or TV to watch while you donated and a snack, there weren't any free gifts or giveaways. I liked doing it because I knew I was doing something important and the people that worked there were all very nice to me. I had to stop going because my veins just wouldn't hold up to being stuck that often. Maybe you should survey your donors to see what they would like or survey the ones that don't return to see if you can find out why. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
christine Posted January 29, 2004 Share Posted January 29, 2004 Hi Jane, thanks for input as a donor! Good idea - just ask the donors what it would take for them to convert to platelet donation (or why they decided not to do it)I already know that most of the hospital employees don't donate platelets due to time - it is so much faster to do the wb, even though they know it is a better product.As for my program, we don't have a huge budget, we just don't have a lot of platelet donors at this time...4-8 per month. Sad, isn't it? I personally would love to do it, but can't as my access vein is not good for apheresis So it is wb donations for me.Jeanette, does your staff have a particular spin on their appeal to wb donors to persuade them to switch? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted February 3, 2004 Author Share Posted February 3, 2004 Christine,Now I see why you can afford to offer those gifts every day to the donors. Have you thought about what you will do once you increase your program? How are you going to afford to keep the same level of gifts around for them? It is very hard to take gifts away. Before I started we gave shirts away every day of the year. This was just too much for our budget so we offer different events instead of shirts. The complaints are plentiful from those who miss those months without shirts. Just some food for thought! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanFL Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 My donor center recently started accepting platelet donors. I like some of the ideas being discussed. But do you promote your platelet program separately? We are located in a hospital and I think there is great potential for success. Any ideas on how to kick it off? I'm open to just about anything. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted June 10, 2004 Author Share Posted June 10, 2004 Bryan,We are also located in a hospital. We do promote platelets differently. What we have relied on is specific recruitment of those donors who are CMV -. We get a list of WB donors who are shown to be CMV- and send them a letter stating that they have "special blood". They respond well b/c they already understand the need for donating but now they are told that they have somethign that is wanted. In the future, we hope to specifically recruit blood types like AB to stick with platelets.Try the buddy system. The whole idea of platelets is scary. You can offer tours or sit w/ blood donors as they donate and inform them of the type of donation.good luck! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanFL Posted June 10, 2004 Share Posted June 10, 2004 Thanks so much for the ideas. I'll put them into practice and see what happens! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanFL Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 I donated platelets yesterday for the first time and everything went fine. Thanks for your advise on recruiting donors. I plan on mailing a postcard to all my A and AB donors on the benefits of giving platelets and see what happens. Did you purchase your movie passes or were they donated? Just curious. Thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanette Posted June 22, 2004 Author Share Posted June 22, 2004 We offer movie tickets but we have to buy them. We do get $2 off of each ticket b/c of an employee discount. If you don't have a discount, look into AAA if anyone belongs to them. They offer movie tickets at a cheap price. Also, what you might want to try is speaking face to face to blood donors at your donor center and on blood drives about platelets. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BryanFL Posted June 22, 2004 Share Posted June 22, 2004 That's good. Thanks for the info! I have gotten a good response from some donors about giving platelets. The only negative reactions I get is the two hours for the procedure. I emphasize the positives from the beginning and hope they really don't pay attention to the 'two hour' portion. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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