American Red Cross review: Unacceptable record keeping and retrieval methods

The American Red Cross is in need to do a better job at keeping donor records safe and retrievable for future eligibility requirements. It’s their duty as a major, if the only, blood bank supplier in the country.

Unfortunately for me, on Tuesday, September 12, 2023, at the First Congregational Church of Southington, CT (which happens to be my church), I was told that I was not eligible to donate blood that day. This was due to the fact that the American Red Cross could not produce a determining blood test of mine back in August of 1991.

I had just been cleared by my physician and given the “Okay”, after a comprehensive physical, to have the ability to donate blood, after learning that my test for Hepatitis B produced a non-reactive result. Twenty-two years have passed since my last donation. The ARC told me that they could not retrieve my data. I was not told why. Why? Because they failed me and possibly other donors, because of inaccuracies in vital data storage.

I am at the mercy of these inadequacies and inaccuracies as to how my records have been handled by this organization. There’s a national shortage of our nation’s blood supplies. Eligible donors, like myself, are being turned away due to the mishandling of donors records. This is totally unacceptable and is a travesty to our communities, and and more so, a gross disservice to those needing life-giving blood that could save their lives. There are family and friends out there depending on the ARC to save their lives. After all, why bother to collect data if only to be told “too much time” has lapsed and cannot be retrieved. There cannot be such excuses as these tolerated anymore. The ARC needs to put in place a re-testing program to re-enter those donors whose records are lost or misplaced. It’s their responsibility to do so and imperative to continue their blood collecting efforts. People are dying and there needs to be a better system in place to insure donors are not turned away so easily like myself.