Check Your E-Mail, Watch a Movie, Save a Life
Blood Center Unveils State-of-the-Art E-Chair

Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center has a new multimedia experience to recruit, entice and entertain donors, and keep them coming back.

A cooperative effort between Baxter Healthcare Corp. and Compaq Computer Corp. has produced a state-of-the-art donor e-Chair. Two e-Chairs, donated to The Blood Center by Baxter Healthcare Corp., Fenwal Division, will offer donors the ability to surf the World Wide Web, correspond via e-mail, play games, listen to music, or even watch television or a DVD movie. The e-Chairs are located in The Blood Center’s new Cypress Fairbanks blood donation facility to better serve its volunteer blood donors in northwest Harris County, and in The Blood Center’s 1400 La Concha Ln. headquarters facility. The Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is the first blood donation organization in the country to offer a commercialized e-Chair to the donating public.

The e-Chair is an ergonomically designed contoured chair fitted with a computer, including a DVD player, monitor, keyboard and stereo headphones.

Since donors often cite time constraints as a primary reason for not donating blood, the e-Chair helps make the best use of the donor’s time, since it is specifically suited to lengthy apheresis donation procedures – the collection of red blood cells, platelets, and plasma. An apheresis donation may take up to two hours, in which time an e-Chair donor will be able to watch a movie, beginning to end, or keep up with their office work. This can mean donors will experience no loss of personal productivity while saving someone’s life.

The Blood Center staff hopes the e-Chair will increase donations by recruiting new donors, while at the same time improving the frequency of donor returns.

Bill T. Teague, president and CFO of Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, said, "The e-Chair is a continuation of our efforts to provide donors with state-of-the-art services We know donors are busy, and this chair is an attempt to see if this service meets the donor’s needs. We hope it does, and that donations will increase."

The new Cy-Fair facility is located in the Fallbrook Crossing Professional Building at 11811 FM 1960 W., Suite 120, a few blocks away from its previous location on Fallbrook Drive. The 3,900 square-foot facility boasts 13 donor beds, increased parking, an expanded canteen area, and a special entertainment area for volunteer donor’s children.

The Blood Center headquarters hours are Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Tuesday and Thursday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. The Cy-Fair facility hours are Tuesday and Thursday – noon to 8 p.m., Wednesday and Friday – 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturday - 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Anyone with questions regarding the e-Chair, Blood Center facilities, drives, or the blood donation process may call The Blood Center, (713) 790-1200, 1-888-482-5663, or visit the Blood Center’s Web site at http://www.giveblood.org.

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©2006 Texas Medical Center

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