COMMUNITY LIAISON COMMITTEE, CALGARY, ALBERTA

Transcription

1 COMMUNITY LIAISON COMMITTEE, CALGARY, ALBERTA SUMMARY NOTES of the meeting of the Canadian Blood Services Community Liaison Committee held in Calgary on Thursday, June 17, 2004 at 4:00 7:00pm PRESENT: OBSERVING: Doug Casper Matthew Hinshaw Janene Hokanson Viki Jerke (Co-chair) Dale Lobsinger Lori Pichette Tony Nicsik Tokie Onoda (NLC Rep) Trevor Trinh (Chair) PJ Vankoughnett-Olson Dr. Norman Yee REGRETS: Dr. Deirdre Jenkins Mike Plato Chrystal Roberts David Sonnichsen Christine Wandzura 1.0 OPENING OF THE MEETING Trevor Trinh, Chair thanked everyone for attending today s meeting and ensured that all members were provided a meeting package. A round table introduction was completed for all participants. 2.0 REVIEW OF AGENDA The agenda was approved as circulated. 3.0 APPROVAL OF SUMMARY NOTES The Minutes of March 18, 2004 were approved as circulated. Once minutes are circulated, members should send corrections or changes to Tokie via in order that she may bring the correct information to the NLC meeting. MAK PROGESA will be removed from tabled items as the system has been implemented successfully across the country making further discussion unnecessary. 4.0 BUSINESS ARISING 4.1 NLC REPRESENTATIVE REPORT T. Onoda updated the committee on the discussions at the last NLC meeting. At the past NLC meeting some of the items discussed included: o The Plasma Protein Product Plan for The plan was well received by the committee. They felt the plan would secure a safe supply of plasma protein products to Canada. The committee wondered about the high goals for collections. Viki explain that Canadian plasma is currently sent to the United States where plasma protein products (such as Factor 8, 9, 10 and immuno-globulins) are separated and turned into powder form. CBS then purchases the products back from the United States. One half of CBS total budget is spent purchasing plasma products. Page 1 of 5

2 The Plasma Protein Plan is a strategy to ensure that Canada has access to a safe, affordable supply of these products. CBS must evaluate the following considerations: whether Canada should be self-sufficient in plasma products, whether it is appropriate for CBS to manage the plasma product supply, where the products should be purchased, what the implications to collections are and what the risks to the supply are/would be. Currently, Canada has 5 plasma collection sites, two of which are in Alberta. o Recruitment and awareness strategies from around the country. Tokie shared the Calgary Corporate Challenge and Speaker s Bureau programs. Other strategies presented were ethnic recruitment, youth recruitment and a BC project that asks deferred donors to donate blood that can be used in Buffy Coat testing research. o Changes to the Freedom of Information and Privacy information. 4.2 CBS Float Update CBS is building a professional quality float that will travel to the 5 Alberta parades and likely to parades in Saskatchewan as well. The goal of the float is to increase knowledge of CBS in the public and increase community involvement (a recent survey showed that only 23% of people can name CBS as the manager of Canada s blood system). The parade is attended by approximately 300,000 people and has a national television exposure of 2.5 million Canadians. If the float wins a prize in the parade, it will also be displayed on the Stampede grounds for the duration of the Stampede. Lori showed pictures of the float in construction. There are two walker spots available for members of the CLC in the Stampede Parade on Thursday, July 9 th from 7 am to 12 pm. Walkers are asked to wear a white shirt, comfortable shoes and blue jeans and will be required to help push the float. Interested members gave their names to Lori at the meeting. It was suggested that the float could be parked outside the Currie Barracks during Cirque de Soliel. 4.3 Donors for Life Update Membership in the Donors for Life program is growing, but the frequency of donations is dropping (expect in plasma, where frequency is double the DFL commitment). To deal with this challenge the Donors For Life program is being revamped. The CLC was asked for feedback at the October 9 th, 2003 meeting and a number of the suggestions made by the committee were incorporated into the new Donors for Life strategy. Changes that will be made to the program are: o Introduction of a tiered program that recognizes different levels of achievement (a gold-silver-bronze program with different giveaways depending on level and possibly a choice of items). o Appropriate goals for apheresis donors. o Increased recognition of DFL members in the clinic (possibly identified on donor card). o Recognition items distributed from Head Office. o Appropriate communication with the option of receiving newsletters via . o Improved newsletter. o Donors for Life newsletter and information on CBS website. o Donors for life feedback address. o Minimum number of donations to stay in the program. Page 2 of 5

3 Calgary started an incentive program to challenge teams of volunteers to sign-up the most number of DFL members. Many volunteers were motivated by the program and more than 1000 members were signed-up in a 4 month period. The committee asked if the period to reach the commitment could start from the time the donor signs up, rather than on the calendar year to give donors the opportunity to meet the commitment if they join the program mid-year. PJ advised that they are currently using a manual tracking system so the calendar year is easier to manage, but that it was worth looking into. Committee suggested having links from other organizations websites. The committee made favorable comments about the new newsletter format. Dr. Lee offered to post the Life Line newsletter in his office and write a cover-letter so it could be distributed to other doctor s offices for posting. The committee suggested posting the newsletter in other locations such as health clubs and in brochure stands in hospitals. If the committee has other suggestions or contacts that could help get the materials into the public they are encouraged to bring their ideas forward. 5.0 NEW BUSINESS 5.1 Bacterial Detection for Apheresis Platelets Rita Burkard, Laboratory Manager gave a presentation about the new bacterial detection system for apheresis platelets. Bacterial infection from transfused blood is a risk for recipients of platelets (risk for whole blood recipients is very low since blood is refrigerated). Precautions are taken to avoid transfusing infected blood by disinfecting the skin on the donor arm, testing a % of the units collected, we now use a diversion pouch for the small bit of skin, white cells are removed and donors are deferred if they feel ill and are asked to contact us if they become ill within 5 days of donating. Bacterial Detection allows us to further reduce the risk by testing each unit of platelets. A sample of blood taken from the diversion pouch is cultured in an incubator. If the sample starts to produce CO 2 -indicating bacterial growth, a sensor on the bottom of the sample container will change colour (permanently), and the machine will alert staff that the sample is infected. The samples are cultured for 6 days, although most positive results will show up in the first day. If a sample tests positive we will pull that unit or if it has been issued, will warn the hospital that the unit was contaminated. Testing was implemented in May in Alberta. By July 2004, all units in Canada will be tested. Units derived from whole blood will not be tested because we do not currently have the capacity to test each unit and it would require a significant portion of the whole blood unit. We expect that demand for whole blood derived platelets drop and demand for apheresis units will grow. Thus, apheresis collections will need to increase. 5.2 Speaking Up to Save Lives L. Pichette provided the group with an overview of the program. The Speakers Bureau program recruits and trains volunteers to speak on behalf of Canadian Blood Services to community and corporate groups interested in blood donation. Speakers are given 9 hours training and are provided with materials (powerpoint slides, etc.). The goals of the program are to provide a challenging opportunity for our volunteers, increase awareness about CBS and to recruit 8% of the audience. Page 3 of 5

4 The program has had success but there are a number of obstacles: there is a lack of staff time to solicit engagements, engagements are often short, feedback forms (used to track whether people donate) are often not completed. To attempt to solicit engagements, we are producing a promotional piece that will feature the speakers, we offer speakers as part of every campaign and are looking at advertising the Speakers Bureau to donors in the clinic. Trevor (who is a member of the Speaker s Bureau) gave a typical Speakers Bureau presentation to the group. Lori informed the committee that we have tried to have speakers present at new mobile clinic sites (such as churches) without much success. Also proposed that companies in Corporate Challenge could earn extra points for hosting a speaker but were turned down by Calgary Corporate Challenge staff. The committee suggested having speakers at the following venues: o High Schools (which we do) and first year classes in the Faculty of Medicine. o Faculty meetings. o College of Nurses convention and the teacher s conventions. o Before runs (like the CIBC Run for the Cure). o Tape a speaker and air on Air Canada flights and closed circuit TVs like the ones in MacEwan Hall at the University. o First-aid and EMT courses. o For sports teams, professional and amateur. o Gymnastics competitions. o Have a speaker on the Coca-Cola stage at the Stampede before performances. Lori asked that if the group thinks of any other good locations or if they know any recipients who may want to speak on behalf of CBS to please let her know. 5.3 West Nile Virus Update Viki Jerke gave an update on the West Nile Virus strategy for summer In May of last year, CBS started a campaign to stockpile plasma and blood, with a good response from donors. On June 17, CBS started using a test for WNV developed in-house. On July 1 st, CBS started using a test developed by Roche. CBS caught 14 cases of WNV and no cases of transfused WNV were reported in Canada (there were 6 cases of transfused WNV in the United States -where they are using the same test). Testing is done in mini-pools where 6 samples are tested at one time. This may be why the infected units that were transfused in the United States were not detected (because the infected sample was diluted). Starting in July, single testing will be performed in epidemic areas, likely to be in Alberta and BC and maybe Saskatchewan. CBS has the ability to single-test 10% of samples (single-testing adds significant workload). If the epidemic area represents more than 10% of the blood supply, we will stop collections were necessary. CBS and the Health Regions and Health Canada are sharing information on infected people. The committee asked how discovery of infected units is communicated to the media. Viki explained that each case is not reported to the media. CBS and the Health Region work together and will release information if deemed necessary. 6.0 FUTURE TOPICS FOR DISCUSSION Each CLC is taking on a focus area, such as youth or ethnic recruitment. It was suggested that the Calgary CLC, take on the area of community involvement with a Page 4 of 5

5 focus on community and corporate partnerships. The committee would identify what CBS s value is and determine how we can market it to community partners and sponsors. The committee will continue to get updates on national programs, safety measures, etc. 7.0 NEXT MEETING DATE The date of the next meeting is tentatively scheduled for November 18, 2004 from 4:00 pm 7:00 pm. 8.0 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 6:50pm. Page 5 of 5