PublicRelations Department

2015/04/22

 Good to Have You-40th Anniversary of Blood Donation

2014 marked the 40th anniversary of our blood donation services. Starting from the January, Blood Donor Month, of that year, we used the “40 years of love; it’s good to have you with us" theme as our promotional slogan. The press conference for the blood donation month was held on December 31 st, 2013, where Miss Yu-Chiu Chen with O-Negative blood group and Miss Li-Chin Chang with B para-Bombay blood group were invited to share their experiences. It generated considerable resonance on the internet. Mr. Hui-Hsiung Wang, a 204-time donor that has reached the upper age limit of donation, was also invited. Although no longer able to donate blood, he joined Taichung Blood Center’s volunteer team, which he considers a great honor, and continues to assist in the promotion of blood donation in order to save lives. During the press conference Mr. Hui-Hsiung Wang passed down the spirit of “blood donation with love” to the next generation, Mr. Yong-Chang Chen, he slao appealed for more young people to join the ranks of blood donation to save lives.
 
To extend the theme of anniversary and show gratitude, our Foundation held a "40 years of love; it’s good to have you with us-40th anniversary of Taiwan’s blood transfusion services " press conference at 2 p.m. on April 18th, 2014 at Eslite Bookstore Dunnan branch to show a new promotional film. We invited the film’s actors and actresses, Mr. Chiu-Hong Shen, Miss Jia-Chen Yu, Mr. De-Ying Hsu and Miss Yu-ChenChang to the event and share their most sincere stories with the public. Furthermore, Wei-Nian Huang, who was the little girl in the "I don't know you, but I thank you" poster and is now grown, also came to the event. The 40th anniversary ceremony opened with a welcoming and warm press conference.
 
During the April 19th celebration, we chose the square in front of "Taipei Chongshan Hall", the starting place of the blood transfusion services 40 years ago and a place with special commemorative significance, to hold the "40 years of love; it’s good to have you with us" celebration. During the celebration, we praised donors, schools, communities, enterprises and special contributors who have been enthusiastic about blood donation over the years. In addition to the special invitation of the Secretary of the Interior Wei-Ren Chen and the Minister of Health and Welfare Wen-Da Chiu to grant the awards, the famous movie star Uncle Yueh Sun and Miss Shu-Li Chen also came to the event to share their experiences of being a life-time blood donation volunteer. The celebration also incorporated Taipei Blood Center’s anniual awards for 2013 to praise the blood donors and groups of the year. All the passionate blood donors gathered to spend this day in history together.
 
Safe Blood for SavingMothers
On June 14th of every year, the world celebrates "World Blood Donor Day" together and blood donation campaigns are held throughout the world to express gratitude to all donors for their silent contributions. The theme for 2014 was "Safe Blood for Saving Mothers”. With regards to this subject, the World Health Organization (WHO) appealed to all countries that in addition to a "medical blood supply provided 100% by voluntary blood donors", a timely supply of safe blood and blood products are required for pregnant women to reduce maternal mortality. WHO also pointed out that, worldwide, about 800 women die from severe hemorrhage during or shortly after childbirth every day. Therefore, obtaining safe and sufficient blood and blood preparation to adequately and properly handle the issue of blood transfusion is still a big challenge in many countries aroundthe world.
 
To celebrate World Blood Donor Day, the press conference was held on June 13th and two mother donors who suffered postpartum hemorrhage were invited to share both their stories of being helped and saving others. Hui-Jing Lin is a single mother and 20 years ago, she was still driving a taxi when she was about to give birth. Suddenly she suffered labor pains and her amniotic sac broke, and her passenger drove her immediately to the hospital. Ms. Lin suffered massive postpartum hemorrhaging, and the Kaohsiung Blood Center urgently transfused blood and saved her and her daughter. In order to thank the donor'sselfless dedication, Ms. Lin and her two daughters also joined the ranks of blood donation to save lives and became a genuine blood donating family.
 
Another woman, Pey-Ya Cheng, began donating blood during her university days, thus learning that she has a rare blood type. Since then, she has continued donating blood to this day. In early May, when she was in Taipei Municipal Maternal and Children’s Hospital giving birth to her second child, she suddenly had a massive postpartum hemorrhage. After the Taipei Blood Center transfused six units of blood in real time to Ms. Cheng, she smoothly gave birth to her child. The attending doctor for Ms.Cheng at the Taipei Municipal Maternal and Children’s Hospital, Li-Wei Huang, was also invited to the press conference to describe the story of postpartum hemorrhaging and blood transfusion treatment process.
 
The definition of a rare blood type is a type of blood with a frequency lower than 1/1000, and it is considered “very rare” if lower than 1/10000. In recent years, our Foundation has been actively strengthening the archiving and preservation of rare blood types for urgent needs. If a medical institution has a patient who needs a blood transfusion, it should contact our local blood donation center or station as soon as possible. We provide a year-round 24-hour blood supply service, and we will try our best to prepare the blood products needed by injured patients.
 
Enterprises and communities deliver the power of love
Business communities regularly support the blood donation services and actively organize various blood donation campaigns. This year, national associations, troops and medical institutions donated a total of 704,171 bags (250ml per unit) of blood, accounting for 27.96% of the total blood donated. Details of their donations are listed in the following table:
 

Center
 
Unit
Taipei Blood Center
Hsinchu Blood Center
Taichung Blood Center
Tainan Blood Center
Kaohsiung Blood Center
Hualian Blood Center
Total
%
The Lions Club
138,763
73,008
125,714
19,920
11,659
13,133
382,197
54.28%
The Kiwanis
27,917
14,972
63,437
4,655
2,297
2,626
115,904
16.46%
The Armed Forces
9,488
9,991
11,597
23,490
17,082
6,125
77,773
11.04%
Buddha's Light International Association, R.O.C.
 
18,513
 
8,445
 
14,427
 
5,977
 
12,675
 
1,769
 
61,806
 
8.78%
The Rotary Club
11,380
3,369
7,139
11,725
17,238
3,951
54,802
7.78%
Medical Care Institutions
 
1,765
 
212
 
4,139
 
3,181
 
1,270
 
1,122
 
11,689
 
1.66%
Total
207,826
109,997
226,453
68,948
62,221
28,726
704,171
100%

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
In 2014, enterprises and organizations also regularly organized large national blood donation activities to benefit patients. Theses national blood donation activities are as follows (listed by date):
 
1. Taiwan High Speed Rail Corporation: 3 blood drives were held at Taipei (Nangang headquarters), Taichung and Kaohsiung from December 5th, 2013 to January 6th, 2014, and 436 bags of blood were collected.
2. Tasty Steak House: The "2014 One Million Passionate Young People’s Recruitment" activities were held from January 24th to 26th and June14th to 30th, and a total of 63,503 bags of blood was collected.
3. Shin Kong Group: 12 drives of the "Blood Donation with Passion" campaign were held from February 7th to 12th, and a total of 1,531 bags of blood was received collected.
4. CSC Financial Group: 6 drives of the "Rally of Love and Delivery of Happiness" activity were held from February 7th to March 31st, and a total of 809 bags of blood was collected.
5. Mobilization of the four types of professionals (accountants, lawyers, doctors, architects): 10 drives of the second "Professionals’ Blood Donation with Love" were held on February 14th, and a total of 955 bags of blood was collected.
6. Chunghwa Post Co.: The "Warm Blood in Cold Winter, Postal Life Insurance Blood Donation Month" activity held 232 drives from February 21st to March 20th, and a total of 31,815 bags of blood was collected.
7. Junior Chamber International of the Republic of China: Thirty drives of the "Junior Chamber International’s Summoning for Blood Donation to Save Lives" campaign were held across the country, and a total of 5,249 bags of blood was collected.
8. Nan Shan Life Insurance Charitable Foundation: The "2014 Nan Shan Summoning for Blood Donation" held 96 drives from May 3rd to August 29th, and a total of 12,835 bags of blood was collected.
9. Cathay Charity Foundation: 90 drives of the "2014 Summer Blood Donation" were held from June 1st to September 6th, and a total of 17,232 bags of blood was collected.
10. Conscription Department of the Ministry of the Interior: To encourage substitue civilian servicemen to enthusiastically donate blood, the "Blood Donation Season for substitue civilian servicemen" campaign was held from June 1st to September 30th, and a total of 19,148 bags of blood was collected.
11. Public Radio System (PRS) : 10 drives of the nationally synchronized "Love on the Air Blood Donation" campaign were held from June  3rd to 17th, and a total of 1,546 bags of blood was collected.
12. Fubon Charity Foundation: The "Immediate Donation of Blood" campaign held 26 drives from July 8th to August 27th, and a total of 4,397 bags of blood was collected.
13. HOTAI Motor Co., Ltd.: The "2014 HOTAI’s National Blood Donation Month" activity held 84 drives from August 1st to September 4th, and a total of 6,059 bags of blood was collected.
14. Chinatrust Life Insurance: 11 drives of the "Blood Donation with Enthusiasm to Help Others" campaign were held from September 18th to October 1st, and a total of 717 bags of blood was collected.
15. Feng Chia University’s Alumni Association: 19 drives of the "2014 National Alumni’s Synchronized Blood Donation" campaign were held from November 1st to 22nd, and a total of 2,625 bags of blood was collected.
 
Returning the favor with money and efforts
Associations, enterprises and the public not only participated in various blood donation activities, but also enthusiastically donated various supplies. This year, the blood centers received 6 blood collecting buses, 5 blood transportation vans, 1 administrative publicity car, and 174,694 empty blood bags. Further details are listed in the following table:

Item
Center
Empty blood bags
Blood collecting bus
Blood transportation van
Administrative publicity car
Taipei Blood Center
89,239
1
1
0
Hsinchu Blood Center
0
4
1
0
Taichung Blood Center
53,389
0
1
0
Tainan Blood Center
8,998
0
0
0
Kaohsiung Blood Center
6,607
0
2
0
Hualian Blood Center
16,461
1
0
1
Total
174,694
6
5
1

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Praise of good performance makes love shine
To thank blood donors for their enthusiasm, the blood center in each jurisdiction holds the “Blood Donation Merit Recognition Assembly” every year. In the 2013 annual assembly, 146 schools were praised for their blood donation  merit and awarded the certificate of merit by the Ministry of Education; 318 organizations and institutions were awarded the certificate of merit by the Ministry of the Interior; and 33 army units were awarded the certificate of  merit by the Department of Defense. Another 107 units or individuals were awarded the Foundation’s certificate of special contribution.
 
Regarding personal awards, 6,358 people donated more than 100 units of whole blood each; 5,478 people donated more than 100 units of apheresis blood, and 217 of them even donated more than 1,000 units each. Furthermore, the number of people who donated more than 500 units (inclusive) of apheresis blood, men who donated more than 150 units of blood (inclusive), and women who donated more than 100 units (inclusive) of blood totaled 577 (318 whole blood donors, and 259 apheresis donors). In addition to the certificate of merit by the Ministry of Health and Welfare, they were also awarded honor medals by the Director of Chinese Blood Donation Association.
 
The annual merit donor representatives’ audience with the President was held on January 8th. The 33 awarded blood donor representatives were accompanied by our Foundation’s Chairman, Jin-Chuan Yeh, and CEO, Sheng-Tang Wei, to have audience with the President.
 
Donor satisfaction survey
Donor satisfaction survey was conducted from November 1st to November 30th, 2014. The surveyed objects were qualified donors who were 17 ~ 24 years old so that young people’s motives and perception of blood donation could be understood. Approximately 10000 questionnaires were answered and returned.
 
According to a statistical analysis of the surveys, the main conclusions are as follows: (1) An important consideration for blood donation intention is the convenience of the location; up to 48.3% of the blood donors think that the convenience of blood donation location will affect a donor’s intention, followed by the influence of classmates or colleagues (36.1%). (2) Regarding the perception of ability to donate blood, donors who answered all questionscorrectly accounted for 37.2%; regarding the perception of inability to donate blood, donors who answered all questions correctly accounted for 17%. The results are low; women’s perception of blood donation is better than that of men, college students’ perception of blood donation is better than senior high school students, and repeat donors’ perception of blood donation is better than first-time donors. (3) Only16.1% of donors have visited the "Taiwan Blood Foundation" or "Love Blood Donation" (i-Blood) website; among the objects of this survey, the first-time donors’ ratio was 48.7%; therefore, donors are generally unfamiliar with the Foundation’s website. (4) Among thefour items of donors’ satisfaction, in addition to"waiting time", of which the satisfaction ratio was about 90%, the satisfaction ratio of the remaining three ("interview personnel’s service attitude and skill", "blood collecting personnel’s service attitude and needling techniques" and "whether the personnel took the initiative to inform donors about the donation process and the matters to be noted before and after the process") were all higher than 95%. This shows that the donors are positive about the quality of the blood centers’ four services.
 
International exchange of views to gain new knowledge
We actively participates in various international conferences to obtain new knowledge, since gaining important references for improvement by exchanging views with other countries is also an important channel for furthering the understanding of the current international status. In 2014, the international conferences in which the Foundation participated include:
1. The 33rd session of the International Society of Blood Transfusion (ISBT) meeting was held in Seoul, South Korea from June 1st to 5th. The team was led by Director Sheng-Tang Wei, and team members included Tainan Blood Center’s Director Guang-Chao Tsai, Hualian Blood Center’s Doctor Li-Ling Lin, Taipei Blood Center’s Technology Supervisor Hsiao-Fen Chen, Hsinchu Blood Center’s Technology devisoin chief Ting-Ting Yang and Taichung Blood Center’s Technology devisoin chief Hsuan-Hui Wang.
2. In 2014, the annual international conference of the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania from October 25th to 28th. The Foundation’s representatives were led by the Research Department’s Director Wei-Ren Cheng, and other team members included Taichung Blood Center’s Director Chi-Ling Lin and Taipei Blood Center’s Banchiao Station Chief Guan-Hsiao Lin.
3. The first Asia Pacific Blood Network (APBN) conference was held in 2013 in Seoul, South Korea from May 29th to 30th, and the second conference was held in Beijing from November 14th to 16th of that same year. CEO Sheng-Tang Wei attended both conferences on behalf of the Foundation.
4. The "Sixteenth Session of the South Central Area Blood Transfusion Academic Exchanges and International Occult Hepatitis B Infection (OBI) Symposium” hosted by Guangzhou Blood Center and Southern Medical University was held from October 8th to 12th, and the Foundation’s Public Relations Director Ping Tsong was invited to lecture on "Blood donor recruitment".
 
Appointment with young people
To understand the perception of blood donation among 17 to 24 year olds and what types of activities blood centers can offer to attract young people to participate in blood donation to serve as an important reference for future promotion of regular blood donation by young people, "An Appointment with Ching-Chuan Yeh" youth blood donation forum was held on November 21st; 25 young people were invited to participate. The forum progressed smoothly, and the participants were quite eager to voice their opinions. It not only helped us to better understand the young people's thoughts, but also gave us a lot of different ideas.
 
Many important points were concluded from the Forum: education and promotion can be more solid, mobile instruments can be more extensively used, laboratory test reports can be easier to understand, advertisements and publicity can be more attractive, gifts can be exchanged across regions, subsidies can be considered for school communities, short movies can be shot to discuss topics, locations and schedules for blood donation can be more convenient, biscuits and drinks can be more diversified, and the significance of blood donation can be further elevated.
 
 
Caring volunteers improve service quality
Our blood centers are strengthening our advocacy and service to blood donors. Blood donation volunteers, in addition to regularly participating in blood donation, assist in providing services.The awards won by blood center volunteers this year are as follows:
 
Hsinchu Blood Center: Chiu-Hua Tseng, Su-Lan Liao and Yue-Yuan Tang were awarded the "Hsinchu County Volunteer Service Gold Medal"; Jin-Huan Ding was awarded the "Hsinchu County Volunteer Service Silver Medal"; and Min-Nan Wu, Ching-Guo Wu, Guo-Bin Huang and Jia-Hui Liu were awarded the"Taoyuan County Health Care Volunteer Bronze Medal".
 
Taichung Blood Center: Taichung Blood Center’s volunteer team leader Rong-Chin Li won the "Taichung Health Bureau 2014 Excellent Health Care Volunteer Orchid Award".
 
Tainan Blood Center: Tsai-Mei Chen was awarded the "Ministry of Health and Welfare Excellent National Volunteer Gold Medal" ; Yu-Ling Tsai was awardedthe "Ministry of Health and Welfare ExcellentNational Volunteer Silver Medal"; Mei-Li Yan was awarded the "Ministry of Health and Welfare Excellent Volunteer Bronze Medal"; Jin-Lan The was awarded the "Chiayi City Volunteer Service Award Silver Medal"; Ming- Tang Chiu and Su-Chen Luo were awarded the"Chiayi City Volunteer Service Award Bronze Medal";Hui-Chi Chang was named a "2014 Annual Chiayi City’s Local Health Excellent Personnel"; Jing-Hsuan Chen was named a "Yunlin County Health Care Excellent Volunteer"; and Ming-Fu Liu was awarded the "Yunlin County Volunteer Service Excellent Volunteer Bronze Medal".
 
Kaohsiung Blood Center: Li-Tsong Chong and Yao-Jin Hsieh were awarded the "Kaohsiung City Volunteer Service Gold Badge"; Yue-Ying Hong Hsieh, Dun-Hsia Chang, Shu-Mei Chen, Ying Wang, Chi-Ming Jiang and Yao-Hua Chang were awarded the "Kaohsiung City Volunteer Service Silver Badge"; and Mei-Hsiang Su, Mei-Hsiao Wu, Shi-Hsian Wei, Hsiu-Chin Linand Hsiu-Man Wang were awarded the "Kaohsiung City Volunteer Service Bronze Badge".
 
Upgrading service
Since the setup of our official website "i-Blood – I just love blood donation", the site has become one of the most commonly used tool for donors’ queries. On the website, people can search locations with blood shortages, blood donation activities and places, disease infection risk zones, medicine and operation restrictions and other practical information. The website also has a medical personnel area that serves as a platform for sharing information among hospitals. The number of viewers since the revision of the official website in 2011 has exceeded 8 million, and the number of viewers of the i-Blood website has exceeded 3.5 million since its setup in 2010.
 
Each blood center has its own Facebook fan club so that it can convey activity information to the people in a quick and fun way. The prevailing internet-community society makes this a very convenient platform.
 
With the mobile trend of smart phones, tablets and various digitized information, all kinds of mobile devices have gradually  become personalized media carriers, and internet platforms that meet the needs of all types of mobile devices will become the mainstream. To this end, we started building a responsive web design in December. In the future, no matter what mobile device is used to surf the web, our site will be  automatically converted to the most suitable web interface. This will make message queries on the website more convenient and easier to   read. This project is expected to go online in March 2015.

 

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