A blood shortage around the country, following a decline in blood donations over the Memorial Day weekend, is impacting UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.
In an email sent by Chief Medical Officer Andy Karson and Chief Nursing Officer Justin Precourt last Friday, they reported the hospital is seeing a large reduction in the supply of Type O and Type B blood. In the email, they said they expect this to be remedied sometime this week, but until then there are critical measures the hospital is taking to ensure it has enough blood for lifesaving care.
Those measures include reserving the two types for only the most dire cases, review by the blood bank for orders of more than two units of blood, and the postponement of some elective surgeries for patients with those blood types.
The email asks anyone with one of the types of blood consider donating.
