Local Hospital Wins "Holiday Challenge" Competition!

HASTINGS MI: Pennock Health Services has emerged the winner of a friendly competition among area hospitals that vied with each other in December, 2004, to recruit blood donors and reduce the risk of blood shortages around the winter holidays. A plaque honoring the victory will be presented to Pennock administrators on Thursday, January 13, at 1 p.m., at the hospital.

Competitors in the Holiday Challenge included Pennock; Saint Mary’s Health Care, Grand Rapids; and Spectrum-Butterworth, Spectrum-Blodgett, and Spectrum Business Center, all in Grand Rapids. Together, in blood drives scheduled from December 21 to December 30, these facilities signed in 393 prospective blood donors and collected 306 pints of blood. The number of donors who signed in for each blood drive, figured as a percentage of that hospitals’ employee census, determined the outcome of the competition.

To win, Pennock recruited 45 prospective blood donors, equivalent to 8 percent of its total employee census, at a blood drive on December 22. Matt Thompson, Ancillary Services director at Pennock, organized and coordinated the drive.

The total donor count for Pennock’s nearest challenger, Saint Mary’s Health Care in Grand Rapids, amounted to 5 percent of Saint Mary’s total employee census; donors at drives hosted by the other competing facilities, Spectrum-Blodgett, Spectrum-Butterworth, and Spectrum Business Center, all in Grand Rapids, amounted to 3 percent of their total employee population.

The Holiday Challenge drives all were held in conjunction with Michigan Community Blood Centers, the nonprofit blood bank that provides 100 percent of the regular blood supply for all hospitals in Kent and Barry counties, including Holiday Challenge participants.

“The winter holidays are always one of the toughest times during the year to keep enough blood donations coming in,” said Doug Klynstra, who heads donor recruitment at Michigan Community Blood Centers. “Meanwhile, the need for blood never takes a holiday, so we have to work extra hard this time of year to collect enough blood. The need to meet that challenge is the motivation behind the annual hospital competition and we’re grateful that our local hospitals are willing to help. These drives are really important in helping this area avoid blood shortage problems, which many other regions in the state and the nation deal with at this time of year.”

Michigan Community Blood Centers provides blood to hospitals in three major regions of the state, including a large area of West Michigan, with a combined total population of about 1.5 million.

© Michigan Community Blood Centers