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Join us TODAY for our live townhall

Join Graham and this month’s panel of experts at 1 p.m. ET today, to discuss the next stage of the pandemic and how we are planning and preparing our facilities for additional employees to return safely to our buildings across the country in September. Note: as with all our themed townhalls, we still encourage you to submit questions during the live event on any topic(s) of interest.

Joining Graham on today’s panel will be Dr. Isra Levy, VP of medical affairs and innovation; Pauline Port, chief financial officer and VP, corporate services and Andre Kroeger, director of strategic facilities management and business integration. Participate in today’s live townhall by clicking on the meeting link in your Outlook invite.

Can’t make it live? A recording of the event will be available on your COVID-19 employee portal within 24 hours.

Blood donor Evan Dunfee walks away with Olympic bronze

Last year, we profiled Olympic athlete Evan Dunfee, a Canadian racewalker who donated blood for the first time during the COVID-19 pandemic. Endurance athletes like Evan work to increase blood volume so that they can cover long distances, so it wasn’t until the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were postponed and his racing season was cancelled that Evan was given a rare opportunity to donate blood.

Since giving back to his community through blood donation last April, Evan has achieved another incredible milestone: he walked away with an Olympic bronze medal in the men’s 50-kilometre race walk on Friday, Aug.6. Congratulations to Evan and to all the other inspiring Canadian athletes who have joined Canada’s Lifeline and have helped to bring hope, as well as national pride, to patients across the country. Read Evan’s first-time blood donation story at blood.ca/stories.

Plans to replace Carescape thermometers with infrared temperature devices cancelled 

In June, when we switched donor temperature checks at the wellness checkpoint from the oral thermometer device to the infrared device, we announced that the next phase was to expedite securing Health Canada approved infrared devices for both donor screening (donation eligibility) and the wellness checkpoint, therefore discontinuing the use of the oral thermometer devices completely. 

Since the infrared thermometer implementation at the wellness checkpoint, our technical teams conducted a thorough investigation and analysis of the devices and its potential to replace the oral thermometers. 

Due to the inability to calibrate the infrared device and challenges with ambient temperature impacts, we have decided to discontinue plans to replace the Carescape thermometers with infrared thermometers for temperature of record in screening (donation eligibility). 

We will continue to use infrared thermometers at wellness checkpoints, as it’s a quicker, non-contact method of reading temperatures. It will also determine the health of the donor before they switch masks. The Carescape oral thermometers will continue to be used for donor eligibility until further notice.

Question of the day: Last month, Canadian Blood Services issued a call asking for an additional 23,000 blood donors across Canada to step forward by July 31 to help replenish the blood inventory. Did we meet our target? 

As most regions across Canada have begun (or will begin) to phase in their reopening plans allowing hospitals to ramp up surgical procedures that were put on hold, demand for blood products has increased to above pre-COVID-19 levels.

In response to this swift increase in demand, we issued a media release on July 6, calling for an additional 23,000 donors by July 31. We also strengthened our donor recruitment and marketing messages and campaigns. 

In response to our efforts, we saw very strong appointment booking and attendance throughout July. If we continue to experience July collection performance through August, we will reach our optimal inventory range of red blood cells on or around Labour Day (September 5).

While Canadians have responded well to our latest call for support, the need for blood donations continues. 

Thousands of appointment slots have been added to help meet the sustained rise in demand. All open appointments must be filled to ensure there’s an acceptable inventory level of blood and blood products to meet ongoing patient needs. 

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About your digest

This digest highlights the latest policy and employee support measures, resources to help you manage our new reality and original content like articles and videos to remind us that what we do matters.  No access to email? No problem — all this information and more can be found on blood.ca/employees from any device, no login required.     

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Have questions? Check out blood.ca/employees or email us at communications@blood.ca