Your digest
Online registration and appointment booking for rapid screening now available:
With support from Health Canada, we’ve joined other leading companies and organizations in implementing a voluntary rapid COVID-19 screening program for employees. Rapid antigen screens (commonly known as rapid testing) can quickly detect COVID-19 in asymptomatic people and help to identify and reduce risk of further infections.
Rapid screening is currently being offered to on-site employees at the Brampton and Calgary production and distribution sites. Plans are also underway to implement in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Dartmouth and Vancouver Oak Street in the coming weeks. If you work at these sites and are interested in participating, online registration and appointment booking is now available directly via your COVID-19 employee portal.
Pending the availability of rapid screening tests from Health Canada and the evolving epidemiology of the virus, we are looking to implement rapid screening at all sites across the country. Make sure to check-out our rapid screening page on your COVID-19 portal for the latest updates.
Next week, join us in honour of NOTDAW: Thank you to everyone who has done their part this month to spread awareness about the lifesaving impact of organ and tissue donation. Next week, we continue our work in honour of National Organ and Tissue Donation Awareness week (April 18 — 25). One of the ways you can participate is registering for our ‘Organs and Tissues for Life’ lunch and learn on April 21 at 12:00 p.m. ET. If you can’t tune in live, a link to the recording will be shared on Yammer and Connect. Stay tuned to Your Digest the rest of the month for inspiring stories that celebrate donors and recipients. We encourage you to share them with your network to spread the word and support patients in need.
Partnering to end burnout in those who coordinate organ donation: Before brand ambassador Ken Lotherington joined the OTDT team at Canadian Blood Services, he was employed with a hospital in Halifax to work directly with patient families and support the multi-organ transplant program. “It was amazing, difficult and foundational work,” says Ken, who is based in Dartmouth, N.S. “Coordinators are one of the most important roles that support organ and tissue donation and transplantation. But folks who work in that role burnout and they burnout quickly. One of the reasons is working around death, grief and loss all the time.” In 2012, Ken left his job at the hospital and began a new career at Canadian Blood Services. Now, working as a system development specialist in OTDT, he’s facilitating world-leading research on burnout among hospital donation coordinators, in partnership with the Children’s Hospital of Eastern Ontario (CHEO), to improve the system he used to work in. Read more on Connect.
Celebrating our MLT’s in honour of National Medical Laboratory Week: Did you know that this week is National Medical Laboratory week? Medical laboratory services are essential to every aspect of our operations. A large number of certified specialists work in a remarkable variety of roles in our facilities across Canada, helping to ensure the safety and efficacy of our life-saving products and services. Since 1985, the Canadian Society for Medical Laboratory Science has designated a week to promote awareness of medical laboratory professionals. Learn more about one of the many ways medical laboratory technicians within our organization are making a difference for patients in need, by reading this article about Tammy Whitteker, who now serves as supervisor, cord blood bank and stem cell manufacturing.
Question of the day: ONN region is accountable for nearly half of the whole blood targets of the country. With the recent announcement of a plasma collection centre coming to Brampton, are we concerned at all that we will lose some whole blood donors as they convert to plasma donation in a geographic area that is already struggling to meet high collection targets?
With all plasma donor centre locations, including the Brampton location, we considered different scenarios for potential donor transition from whole blood to plasma and reviewed a combination of factors to determine optimal locations for these shared markets, including size of population, accessibility/convenience, an engaged donor base and other operational criteria.
In the case of Brampton, we know there is significant untapped donor potential in the GTA, which we are confident will allow us to grow both the whole blood and plasma programs over time.
Supply chain and donor relations and the plasma operations divisions are collaborating on integrated recruitment and collection plans that will ensure there is no impact to fresh blood product supply locally and nationally, while also creating collective excitement for donors in these markets with more options to support Canada’s Lifeline. We are in the early planning stages and are committed to providing updates to employees as soon as we can.
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About your digest
This digest will highlight 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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