On this episode of Banking on KC, Kris-Ann Carduff, Account Manager at Community Blood Center, discusses the ongoing need for blood donations and how CBC plays a vital role in supplying 97% of the blood to hospitals in the Kansas City region.
On this episode of Banking on KC, Kris-Ann Carduff, Account Manager at Community Blood Center, joins host Kelly Scanlon to discuss the ongoing need for blood donations and how CBC plays a vital role in supplying 97% of the blood to hospitals in the Kansas City region.
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Kelly Scanlon: Welcome to Banking on KC. I'm your host, Kelly Scanlon. Thank you for joining us. With us on this episode is Chris Ann Cardiff, the account manager for the Community Blood Center of Kansas City. Welcome, Chris Ann. Thank
Kris-Ann Carduff: you.
Kelly Scanlon: You're doing such important work, but for our listeners who might be unfamiliar with the CBC.
E, the community blood center. What's the scope of your work, especially in Kansas City? I know you're part of a larger group, which you can talk with us about, but the scope of your work in Kansas City and what's your role in making it all come to life? Perfect. So.
Kris-Ann Carduff: Community blood center. It's been around for a very long time here in Kansas City, and our goal is to supply the region hospital, the regional hospitals with blood.
Mm-hmm. So they rely on us. We, we supply 97% of the hospitals in this region. Really with the blood that they need. Comes from your organization? Yes. Wow. One of the things that I wanted to make sure people know today is how Blood, how important it is. Mm-hmm. Because there's no substitute for it. We, as humans have to right save each other, and there's a shelf life to it.
So there might be a lot of people, like, I'm, I'm being called by them all the time, or I see, you know, every day it seems like they're asking for more and that it's critical and it's not hyperbolic. It's, it's real. We need. Yeah. And isn't
Kelly Scanlon: there a difference between cer, like there's platelets and there
Kris-Ann Carduff: platelets, plasma and whole blood are the three that you'll hear the most whole blood's.
What we, when you're added it. A drive. If someone's having a, a blood drive at your church or in a community or building here at like, Country Club Bank does the, the majority of that is whole blood. So we're getting the red blood cells. Mm-hmm. And then we take them back to the lab and we test it obviously for safety and Right.
And split it up in the way that it can then. Go in as products to what the patient needs
Kelly Scanlon: and what is the demand you provide? 97% of it talk about constantly replenishing. Constantly. The statistic is like every
Kris-Ann Carduff: two seconds in America, someone needs in the United States needs blood. Blood is needed for.
Obviously traumatic situations in the emergency room. Mm-hmm. There's also platelets are required for cancer survivors. Sure. And people who are, are, are battling cancer. Another really amazing statistic is one in 83 women giving birth are going to end up in a situation where perhaps there's hemorrhaging or they might need.
Units of blood during that process. Mm-hmm. So also just a standard surgery might need
Kelly Scanlon: blood. So it's not just one thing. You might, you might think of the accidents or whatever, you know? Yes. A car accident. But it, there's a lot of, it's just ordinary every day, every day routine kinds of medical. Exactly.
Yeah. So
Kris-Ann Carduff: it's a, it's a game of making sure that you have the right supply at the right time and having a consistent. Supply mm-hmm. That the hospitals can rely on. And then if there's anything traumatic that happens, I'm thinking about the people in, in, in Texas right now. Exactly right. Dealing with that flood.
When something like that occurs, um, then the demand is even higher and it's amazing. People usually step up in a situation like that. Yes, exactly. So what is your role in all of this? So my role is I'm an account manager. I'm a liaison between our. Chair people at different businesses and churches and communities that want to put on a blood drive.
Mm-hmm. My role is to help them put on that event the best as we can. So I help them with the communications and marketing it. I supply them with all the what's needed to, to just put on the drive and help them with the education. What we really need from, from our chair people is the circles of influence, helping us reach out to new people that maybe don't even know or aren't even aware.
I know personally, before I worked here, I knew that there was, you know, blood drives. I'd seen them, but I had just never really paid much attention. Mm-hmm. It hadn't impacted me personally, so because of that. I really wasn't aware, and now I have this whole new world opened up to me and I'm like, oh my gosh, I'm now a donor for life, obviously.
And every single person that we can convert, educate, have them understand why we need this. It's just amazing.
Kelly Scanlon: So I've read somewhere that every blood donor with their donation can save up to three lives each time they donate, and yet there's only a small percentage, also a three, 3% of eligible donors.
Actually gifts. So how can you help us understand the real measurable impact that the community Blood Center has on our region and maybe provide some numbers that bring it home? 62% of the
Kris-Ann Carduff: population. Is eligible to give, but only 3% do for, for any reason. Mm-hmm. It could be, again, just not aware. It could be fear of needles.
There's, there's all sorts of reasons, but those 62% that can, we'd really love to get ahold of them. Yeah. 'cause there's also, you could only give so often. Right. We, we care about the safety of the donor as well. So for a whole blood donation, you are able to give every 56 days roughly. So every couple months.
Yes. Yeah, about eight weeks. So that is great. And we love it when people get into the routine. You know, obviously the more you can become a regular donor, the better our job is to try to get more of that 62% to know. I think a lot of people think they can't give. So some of the myths that I've heard are, oh, well I have low, I had low iron.
I, I tried one time and they said my iron was low. Well, that's a one time, however, most people it is. If you eat the right foods and you're drinking the water and you're doing certain things leading up to your donation, that. You're gonna be fine that day. Yeah, you're gonna be fine. And your, your iron could be low one day and the next day it would be fine.
So we always encourage someone who heard at a previous that they were deferred, as we call it, they were unable to give on that day, to come back and try again. There might be something. Mm-hmm. That's different.
Kelly Scanlon: If you had 30 seconds. Okay. I'm gonna give you 30 seconds. If you had 30 seconds, when someone's on the fence about donating blood, what would you say to them?
Not just as a professional, but as a person, person, person. Yeah.
Kris-Ann Carduff: I would say. I get it. I was that person. Also, I tried in high school, I remember as the, on the journalism and on the yearbook, trying to even just take pictures of the blood drive for our yearbook made me queasy. So I understand that. However, once it impacts you, once you've been in a situation where someone you've loved has been in a car accident, or you know someone who's battling cancer or anyone who's ever given birth, would you put it into the context of your.
Those being the people that you love. This 30, you know, this few minutes with this needle in your arm is just nothing compared to what those people have gone through, right. That have been in those situations. So I feel like. It's easy for me to put that aside. And then I tell everyone, the greatest thing you could do is just, I, I like to go to the beach, is what I call it.
So I get, when I'm, when I'm there at the, on the, in a nice, comfortable bed and I put my arm out, I'm like, okay, hold on a minute. I turn the other way. I look at the opposite way. I have my AirPods in and I listen to a, a nice compelling book, or I mentally just put myself at the beach and then it doesn't really matter because it's.
It, um, it's, it takes like 10 minutes. If you've drank a lot of water and your, and your blood's flowing well, it can take 10 or 15 minutes. I think that was the thing that was really a, a misnomer was I visualize, I was almost going into this hospital environment and I was gonna be there all day and it's not, we'd make it as comfortable as we can and we get the procedure out of the way as fast as we can.
Kelly Scanlon: And, and I mean, you can go to the blood center and donate, but, but for the most part, uh, you can. Do it out from your workplace. Yes. During the drive from your church, from, you know, wherever it might be. Very familiar places. Yes, yes. Exactly. Now, I mentioned earlier that you're part of a larger network. Talk to us about that and the benefits of being part of a broader organization.
Kris-Ann Carduff: Yes, so we, uh, uh, about five or so years ago, were. Brought into an enterprise with the New York Blood Center. And what's amazing about them, they're kind of famous up in the northeast for some of the research that they have done and, and actually there's been a lot of great research done here in Kansas City.
The closer we can get to the donor and the recipient match, the better it is for the recipient.
Kelly Scanlon: And I suppose that best practices are shared between you and others in the network and so forth. Yes, absolutely.
Kris-Ann Carduff: And then if for any reason there were a tragedy in one region, we could. Jump in and supply and export what we need to them.
Kelly Scanlon: The strong partnerships that you build with hospitals, corporations, you've mentioned your relationship with Country Club Bank and other community organizations. So what makes a partnership with Community Blood Center successful and how does CBC build trust in a space where the stakes are so high?
Kris-Ann Carduff: What I love about it is there's something in it for everyone.
We obviously need to collect blood to save lives. That's the number one mission. However, we can be helpful and beneficial to our partners as well. So I like that. Putting on a blood drive is a great way to show off your business. Maybe you have, uh, a brand new, beautiful hotel or, uh, another bank branch that's lovely.
And you want to bring people in. Mm-hmm. And it's hard sometimes to get people outta their houses these days. Right? True. Yeah. We've all become very comfortable with being able to have everything come to us. And having a blood drive is a great way as a business to show your community support. Mm-hmm. And that you believe in each other and you wanna bring everyone together.
I like also that it's an opportunity for a business too. Maybe find their next leaders in their company that they can put them in charge of this blood drive and find out how they do as, yeah, as putting on this an event and, and bringing in people and, and showing their leadership skills. Yeah, with the committees.
Good point. So yeah, there's a lot of. Benefits to anytime you put on an event such as this.
Kelly Scanlon: You've kind of talked a little bit about some of the changes in the last five years, but let's go a little deeper. How has blood donation and the donor experience itself changed in recent years, and what are you doing differently today that might have seemed impossible five years ago?
I know you mentioned the research and the breakthroughs there, but what are some of the other things that you're doing differently, especially when it comes to the donor experience? I think there were a lot of
Kris-Ann Carduff: myths and misnomers and we, over the years have been better at testing blood so we don't have to turn as much blood away as we maybe did.
In the past there used to be a lot of fear of tattoos, right? Yes. And then now it's so commonplace. We as a collectively, not just community blood center, did enough to figure out that. Their tattoos are not something that has to be a deal breaker.
Kelly Scanlon: There is a constant need for blood, like you said, the leukemia patients or for the, for just routine surgeries and so forth.
So this constant need is how do you keep people engaged year round. What messaging have you found really works well to keep it top of mind?
Kris-Ann Carduff: For example, nine 11, we obviously we had a line out the door. Oh, sure. Everybody has their nine 11, you know, their personal one. There's someone who is, it's something is affecting them as strongly and as powerfully as that hit all of us on a daily basis.
And that's something we really need to keep in mind. Everyone knows someone too. Yes. Like especially in this new world that we're in, I mean, cancer's becoming so prevalent. We, we need people to always be thinking about the fact that there's someone who needs this and you think, oh, well, somebody else will do it, but.
That somebody else might not be able to do it.
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. So you keep the messaging personal. Mm-hmm. But you also, you focus on the
Kris-Ann Carduff: positive outcomes. Yes. We do a lot of in honor ofs and in of people who have battled cancer or, and have survived it, and they realize this is their way. To give back mm-hmm. To say thank you to all the people that helped them.
Um, and it, it doesn't cost you any money to put on a drive, right? You just open up the doors and tell your friends and family and coworkers, and then we'll come in and do the rest. So I like that. We try to very hard to make it super easy. For you to host a drive
Kelly Scanlon: Yeah. And
Kris-Ann Carduff: bring people together. Yeah.
Kelly Scanlon: Not everybody might be able to run into an ocean and save a drowning child, but you can sit on a bed exactly for 10 minutes and focus on, like you said, a an audio book or something and save three lives.
Exactly. Yeah. It's, yes, it's easy in that regard. Yes. You, you were talking earlier about some of the. Myths why people think they can't get blood. How do you reach people who might have misconceptions about whether they can give? We do a
Kris-Ann Carduff: lot of community events and what I call tabling, just showing up and answering questions.
You'll be surprised when you ask someone if they, Hey, can you be here? And you invite them to give and they'll tell you, oh, I can't because of this or that. And that's a great opportunity for us too. Educate and say, actually I had someone who thought because he had yellow fever when he was nine, he can't give.
And I said, actually, you know, your blood's recirculated a lot of times over the years. And that is not a, a barrier. We have a medical hotline that, that someone can call in anonymously, talk about what they think might prevent them from giving and we can. Share with them whether that's true or not.
There's a lot of medications. People think just because they're on a medication Right. It's a, an automatic knockout, and that's not true either. We wanna make sure it's safe for the donor. Mm-hmm. We don't want them to be doing anything that would, would jeopardize their health.
Kelly Scanlon: What innovations or partnerships are you excited about that could reshape how your organization engages donors and meets local needs?
Kris-Ann Carduff: I think the more we partner with. Different community leaders and help with the education. That's the key because let's face it, we hear what we wanna hear, we trust what we hear, when we hear it from someone that either has had the same experience as ourselves or looks like us. People in Kansas City will know the name Joanne Collins.
Sure. Mm-hmm. She was a councilwoman. Um, I mean, her resume is a mile long, right. She's an amazing human being and. She's turning 90 this year. I know, I heard that. And we're so excited because she's willing to do, she's asking her friends and her family to come out and do a blood drive. It was August 16th.
Most of the time people start promoting their blood drive within about a month of, mm-hmm. Or three weeks. Really about the week of before. She's already got 84 people who are like, wow, where do you want me? Yeah, that's great. That's great. They're, they're lining up and that's the kind of beauty that, that we as a community, that's what I love about Kansas City.
Kelly Scanlon: Well, and then you've hopefully after this one influential person attracted 84 people, you've got 84 new advocates out there too. That's just the 84 we know about today,
Kris-Ann Carduff: and we got two months still. But yes. Think about how many. People that will hear her message that have never maybe even been introduced to this before.
Exactly. Uh, in their, you know, you can give as young as 16 with a parental.
Kelly Scanlon: Mm-hmm.
Kris-Ann Carduff: Uh, consent and then, uh, 17 on, we, we, anyone can give, but just, I would just love it if the, the people that know Joanne personally bring their family and their their children, and we might see this. Amazing. You know, new I, I'm really curious to see how many new donors we get out of it.
I'm really, really excited to
Kelly Scanlon: see, oh, I'm, you'll a substantial number. Yeah, it sounds like it. Anyway, so for corporations, for schools, for other organizations that might want to partner with you, what's the best way to get in touch with you?
Kris-Ann Carduff: The CC is, uh, save the Life now.org. That's our website. Contact me through the website.
We, there's 10 account managers like me. All over Kansas. We go all the way out as far as Council Grove and we're north as you know, St. Joe, and all the way up to, to the borders of Nebraska and Iowa, and down in Missouri. So we're all over and we're here and we wanna help you put on a drive, and especially if there are kids out there that are looking for scholarship money to.
Help them get to college. We can show you ways to, oh, put on a drive, get your leadership skills honed down. Mm-hmm. All that good stuff. So there's, if you wanna put one on, we'll find a way to help you make it happen. That's for sure. So
Kelly Scanlon: save a life now.org. Go out there. You can contact Chris Ann through that site.
There's success stories on there, there's testimonials, there's all kinds of interesting information on there that will help you put on a good drive. And so save a life now. Org Thank you so much for coming on the show and talking about this wonderful organization and all the work that you do behind the scenes.
You know, people take blood for granted. It flows through our veins, but we need more. Yes, and you make it
Kris-Ann Carduff: really fast. So go ahead and give some of it to us 'cause you'll make more, I promise. Thank you so much.
Joe Close: This is Joe Close, president of Country Club Bank. Thank you to Chris Ann Cardiff for being our guest. On this episode of Banking on KC Chris Ann shared how the Community Blood Center of Kansas City supplies 97% of local hospitals with life-saving blood and why regular donors. Are vital to meeting constant and diverse needs from trauma patients to cancer survivors.
Her work bridges, communities dispels myths and invites all of us to step up and save lives. Country Club Bank is proud to partner with organizations like the Community Blood Center that build strong, healthy communities through collaboration and compassion. Thanks for tuning in this week. We're Banking on New Kansas City Country Club Bank Member FDIC.