South Dakota Chapter hosts blood drive as part of mission goals

The HFMA South Dakota Chapter hosted its first blood drive and helped collect 22 pints of blood, supporting 66 lives, when it partnered with the South Dakota Association of Healthcare Organizations’ (SDAHO) education and networking event along with LifeServe at the Sioux Falls convention center in September.

Setting a mission goal into motion

The idea of hosting a blood drive manifested during an early 2025 planning discussion of the chapter’s mission goals, when the shortage of donated blood in the state of South Dakota.

“We asked ourselves what opportunities are available to partner with local employers and schools to increase the number of people donating in the state,” said Chapter President Brittany Roth, executive director, revenue integrity & quality improvement, Avera Health.

Steps to make it happen

“When the HFMA Chapter began researching a location to host a blood drive, we thought this convention [center] would provide a centrally located spot to drive participation,” said Jacob Parsons, director of advocacy and reimbursement at the SDAHO and director on the South Dakota HFMA chapter board of Directors.

The South Dakota HFMA Chapter then approached SDAHO to host the blood drive with the September event. Chapter leaders noted the importance of securing a blood bank ahead of time and securing an adequate accessible space within the venue. They highlighted the importance of reaching out to blood banks a few months in advance to ensure availability, especially when hosting a blood drive in conjunction with a previously scheduled event.

When marketing the event, HFMA worked with LifeServe to offer blood drive registration ahead of time, allowing participants to select a designated time.

“The opportunity to sign up in advance helps the blood bank staff up, preventing potential wait times,” Parsons said.

The Chapter used email marketing to promote the event to HFMA and SDAHO members, registered conference attendees and marketed the event through LinkedIn and Facebook. The HFMA Chapter members coordinated logistics to set up the blood drive inside a breakout room at the convention center, continuing to encourage registration as event attendees arrived.

Crucial to the blood drive’s success was the decision to engage the blood bank ahead of time to review the space and determine whether it would accommodate the anticipated number of participants and work with the event flow.

Future blood drives

To host multiple blood drives, the Chapter needed to be mindful of certain restrictions, including the following:

• Blood donors may not donate more often than about once every eight weeks.
• Organizations may not host more than one drive in the same city within a certain number of days, as specified by each state.

Partnering with other organizations, the Chapter scheduled additional blood drives for February and March, where Chapter members could sign up to be blood donors and help with wayfinding. The success of those events was unknown at press time.

“This first year is really about learning where we fit,” Roth said, adding, “[We can then determine] how many blood drives can we do on our own and how many can we partner with other organizations.