| Milestones
in quality blood donor care |
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| The
new Donors’ Refreshment
Lounge was officially opened by
Dr Mohamad Maliki Bin Osman in
October. |
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The Health Sciences
Authority (HSA) recognises the importance of blood
donor satisfaction and places great value on the
time and effort taken by its regular blood donors
to come forward to give the gift of life to save
those in need.
As part of its ongoing commitment to providing quality
donor care, HSA’s Centre for Transfusion Medicine
(CTM), which operates the Bloodbank@HSA, continually
upgrades its blood donation facilities. New initiatives
are also introduced to make blood donation more
convenient and enjoyable with the objective of encouraging
more Singaporeans to donate blood.
Said Dr Diana Teo, Director of CTM: “It is
important that every blood donor be provided with
the highest quality of donor care available. In
addition to donors receiving good standards of medical
and nursing care to protect their health and safety
during the donation, quality donor care also means
treating every blood donor as an important customer
and valued for his or her community service.”
The newly revamped Donors’ Refreshment Lounge
is specially dedicated to all blood donors. It was
launched on 4 October 2004 by Dr Mohamad Maliki
Bin Osman, Parliamentary Secretary, Ministry of
Health and Ministry of Community Development, Youth
and Sports.
He said: “The safest blood comes from blood
donors who voluntarily come forward to donate blood
regularly to the community, and who do so with no
expectation of material rewards, other than the
satisfaction of knowing that they have helped another
fellow human being.
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| The
Donors’ Refreshment Lounge features
a wall that pays tribute to champion
donors. |
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“Blood banks that aim to provide safe and
high quality blood and components must work to recruit
and retain such donors.”
The lounge is designed to provide a comfortable
and warm environment for blood donors to rest and
relax in. They can enjoy their post-donation refreshments
there.
A main feature of the lounge is the River of Life,
a specially designed wall that forms the backdrop.
The wall pays tribute to champion blood donors who
have donated between 50 and 150 times. The names
of some 1,500 champion donors are featured on the
wall. More names will be added annually to the River
of Life, which is able to hold 5,000 names.
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| The
Apheresis Suite@HSA provides a comfortable
and relaxing environment for its regular
donors. |
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In April 2002, the Apheresis Suite@HSA was launched
and hailed as a significant step towards providing
quality donor care.
The suite provides a more comfortable and relaxing
environment for its regular donors, who not only
sacrifice more time at each donation, but also make
more frequent donations of up to six times a year.
At the suite, the apheresis donor can enjoy a choice
of the latest movies and full terrestrial networks
via the individual TV monitor attached to his couch.
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| DonorCare@HSA
allows donors to make blood donation
appointments and update their personal
particulars. |
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This is an online service for blood donors that
was introduced in August 2003. It allows all blood
donors to book donation appointments at the Bloodbank@HSA
or at the nearest mobile blood drive at anytime.
Donors need not worry about missing appointments
as confirmation and reminders of appointments will
be disseminated via the short messaging service
(SMS) or email, according to the donors’ preference.
Further, waiting time for donation is also reduced
for those who make appointments as the online system
tracks and avoids peak hours for the appointments.
In addition, donors can conveniently update their
personal particulars online through the secure DonorCare@HSA
system. While upholding donor confidentiality, the
system facilitates easy dissemination of information
to the donors.
Also online is the Health Assessment Questionnaire,
which is available in four languages. Potential
blood donors can determine if they are suitable
for blood donations by doing the health assessment.
This obviates the need for them to make unnecessary
trips to Bloodbank@HSA or the mobile blood drives
if they are unsuitable for blood donation.
As part of its ongoing efforts to reach out to communities,
HSA regularly provides updated information to both
donors and non-donors. This way, they can learn
more about the blood donation process and better
understand the importance of donating regularly
and how they can contribute to blood safety.
The importance of service quality is also strongly
emphasised through initiatives like the HSA Customer
Service Standards and the Feedback Communication
Programme. |
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By
Rene Yap, HSA
Next:
Cutting queues at CPF
Building |
