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Terry Streetman (Host): Welcome back to Well Within Reach. I'm Terry Streetman, Riverside Marketing Communications Representative. We're here today with Alison Paglin, Laboratory Manager at Riverside Medical Center, who's here in honor of National Blood Donor Month to discuss our blood bank and what you need to know about donating blood. Thanks for joining us.

Alison Paglin: Hi, Terry. It's a pleasure to be here.

Host: Awesome. Well, before we get into our questions, we will take a quick break for a message about myChart.

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Host: Okay. So Alison, this is your first time as a guest here. So, could you please tell us a little bit about yourself and your role here at Riverside?

Alison Paglin: I'm a medical laboratory scientist. I've been a medical laboratory scientist since 1984, so a lot of experience. I'm the lab manager, so I manage approximately 24 medical laboratory scientists, and then there's additional staff too, phlebotomy staff, about 19 of them.

Host: Wow. Okay. Well, we're glad to have somebody with that kind of experience here managing our laboratory. And can you tell us sort of about the lab, the services that are provided, and sort of what makes our lab special?

Alison Paglin: We have multiple departments within the lab. So, we have Microbiology, Chemistry, Hematology, and then Transfusion Medicine, or the Blood Bank. We have a lot of state of the art equipment. We try to keep as up-to-date as possible with our equipment to make sure we're able to give very good quality results to our patients. And we try to keep as much testing in the community as possible. So, doing the testing in our lab versus sending it somewhere else to be done.

Host: Sure. Well, that's great. I know that's a big focus for us here at Riverside, is that care close to home and that extends all the way to our testing in our laboratory. So, I think that's awesome for us to be able to offer. So, shifting gears, I guess, a little bit to the blood donation, what kinds of needs or treatments or procedures are there with the hospital that that donated blood is needed for?

Alison Paglin: Probably cancer patients and traumas are number one. Cancer patients need support throughout chemo with packed cells, sometimes fresh frozen plasma and platelets, traumas depending on what's happened. It's an urgent need for blood. And then, surgical procedures also, so heart surgeries, other types of surgeries can cause there to be a need for the patient.

Host: Well, and I imagine with that variety of things that we need blood for, there's probably a pretty consistent need. Are there times where that need spikes or where we have shortages?

Alison Paglin: Yes, definitely. Summer time is a difficult time around the holidays. Winter in general, just because people get sick in the winter, so they're not able to donate, maybe when they plan to. And then, always with the holidays because people are just busy.

Host: No, that makes sense. Well, if people are able to make a donation then, you kind of touched on this earlier with a couple of the other things that the procedures and the patients need. What are the different types of donations? Because it's not always just like, you know, red blood cells, right?

Alison Paglin: Right. At the blood drives, they're able to donate either whole blood or what's called a Power Red. Power Red, you sit on a phoresis machine and donate basically two packed cells, and then they give you the plasma back. That enables you to donate more red cells, which is what's needed versus doing a second donation in eight weeks. At a donation center, then that's where you would need to go to donate platelets.

Host: Okay. Well, yeah, it's good to know there's different options. And we'll talk a little bit more about this in a minute. Before our next question, though, we're going to take a minute to talk about the importance of primary care.

Consistency is being able to count on someone to be there when you need them. At Riverside HealthCare, your primary care provider is dedicated to being in your corner, helping you and your family stay healthy and thrive. Find the right primary care provider for you at riversidehealthcare.org/primarycare. From annual screenings to well checks and everything in between, having a primary care provider that you can trust makes all the difference.

Okay. So, we're back, and one of the other questions I wanted to ask, are there different blood types or types of donors that are more needed?

Alison Paglin: Usually, O is more needed, O-negative especially. O just being universal blood type, anybody can receive O. So, on those traumas that I mentioned, sometimes we don't know the blood type immediately, so we give O blood to those patients. So, it's also the most prevalent blood type, so that's good. Oh, okay. But depending on time of year and just who presents, it could be they're short of B's, they're short of A's, depending.

Host: I always thought that like O was super rare. Is it just O-negative?

Alison Paglin: O-negative is rare, yeah.

Host: When I've donated blood, I've seen things about like sickle cell and specific things for that. Is that something everybody can donate or are there certain needs for folks who have sickle cell?

Alison Paglin: There could be certain needs, yes. People who get transfused often, like a sickle cell patient, they have the possibility of developing antibodies, and whenever you develop antibodies, then you have to make sure the blood is compatible for those people. So, that's where the additional screening comes in and finding those basically typed units that are specific for a certain patient population.

Host: So if somebody is listening to all this and they're saying, "Hey, you know what? I think I might want to donate. I know the need is there. I know this could help people," what should people know before they sign up for a blood drive or a donation?

Alison Paglin: Well, signing up, just making sure you have about an hour of time to go through the process. And then, day of, making sure you've eaten before you've come, are well hydrated. Just that process takes, like I said, about an hour. You'll go through a little medical screening, blood pressure, temperature check, hemoglobin, which is a finger stick. But, honestly, they do it pretty well and it's not as painful as it used to be, I noticed.

Host: Yeah, that's always my least favorite part. But honestly, it's over quickly.

Alison Paglin: Yeah. And then, just be prepared to answer questions. There's lifestyle questions and travel questions to help with just making sure we're giving safe blood to our patients.

Host: So for those donations, can people donate directly to or through the Riverside Blood Bank? Or are there blood drives that we have that people can participate in?

Alison Paglin: Blood drives. We don't have a donor service at Riverside, but we do hold blood drives approximately every eight weeks. So, that is a possibility you can donate there. Otherwise, there's also other places in the area that hold Blood drives too.

Host: Okay. All right. Well, people can keep an eye out for that then. I know I've done a couple of the blood drives here at Riverside. They're always pretty quick and easy, everybody's very friendly. So, keep an eye out for that. I guess we're getting toward the end here. Before we wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to add for the listeners?

Alison Paglin: just try it. I mean, if you have never donated, it's a very rewarding process. Every unit that's donated can save up to three lives. So, it's the giving season, right?

Host: That's right. Yeah, and I'll say I've done it a few times now, but I know it can be pretty intimidating, just the idea of it. So, I'm glad we can provide some of this background and what people can expect, because it's not a scary experience, and it's so helpful.

Alison Paglin: And we give nice snacks at the end.

Host: I love those snacks. All right. Well, thank you again for joining us today, Alison.

Alison Paglin: You're welcome. To learn more about Riverside Laboratory Services, you can call 815-935-7535, or you can visit myRHC.net/laboratory. Thank you for tuning in to Well Within Reach presented by Riverside Healthcare. Please take a moment to rate and leave a review for Well Within Reach on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. To learn more about Riverside, visit riversidehealthcare.org.