PulsePoint

Spring 2010

PulsePoint[a newsletter for Stanford Blood Center employees and volunteers]

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Blood collectors across the U.S. are entering a time of great change.

The basic tenets—the who, what, when, where, and why—of the blood banking industry are in a state of flux. Who needs blood? Demographics continue to point to an aging popula-tion; in other words: people are living longer. Longer life spans may indicate more blood-using procedures and thera-pies. Changes in healthcare availability may also put more people in the mix. What products do patients need? That’s changing too. After 40 years of chronic blood shortages, the country seems to be heading towards a stable blood supply. Inventory levels across the nation are at an all-time high for red cells. Plasma utilization is decreas-ing. However, platelet usage continues to grow, and in our case, it sometimes outpaces our ability to collect and pro-duce enough to meet demand. When do hospitals need us most? We can expect a shift in this as well. Hospitals are studying the way they use blood products and testing services in the interest of lowering their cost of operation. It’s not a question of if this utilization review will impact blood product and testing volume, it’s a ques-tion of what that impact will be. Where does the blood go? Changes in the way healthcare is administered look to be probable. Will urban health centers of excellence become greater users of blood products?

from the administrator:

Why do patients need blood? That’s one that isn’t changing. People need blood transfusions because there is no alternative that will help them get bet-ter. They need blood so they can con-tinue life. They need blood so they can spend another day with their families, so they can put in another day at work, so they can beat cancer. It’s certain that our future will be different than our past. We will need to reconsider how to synchronize with patient needs. We will need to be flex-ible and highly adaptive to continue to be relevant to our hospital customers. Think of change in positive terms, be-cause it’s coming whether we embrace it or not. Hold on to your hats. We’re in for a wild ride!

in this issue10 hours without power: how we dealt pages 2-3

system updates page 4

department news pages 5-8

new employees page 9

years of service page 10

new volunteers page 10

editor/designer} Brooke Wilson

contributors} Lupe Alcantar, Sharon Branaman, Dianne Geary, Michelle Harmon, Mallory Hayes, Michele Hyndman, James Innes, Karin Kealoha, Tessa Moore, Kevin O’Neill, Julie Ruel, Harpreet Sandhu, Bob Sherman, Elaine Sugasawara, Harry Sussmann, Jan Webster, JoAnn Wilson, Vince Yalon.

advisory board} Dr. Ed Engleman, Dr. Susan Galel, Michele Hyndman, Jen Reczkowski, Harpreet Sandhu, JoAnn Tucker, and Vince Yalon.

Please send comments, suggestions, and questions about PulsePoint to Brooke Wilson at [email protected].

PulsePointcontributors:

Tessa Moore provides content about volunteers and new employees for every issue of PulsePoint. She wishes she had worn purple on the day this photo was taken.

Harry Sussmann contributed great information for the system update articles that are featured on page 4. He was a good sport about having his work edited down to fit into this packed issue of PulsePoint!

Jan Webster submits infor-mative, timely updates about the Processing Lab for every issue of PulsePoint. She is an avid bird watcher, as you may be able to tell from this photo from Hat Day.

d r af t

Just before 8:00 a.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 17, a Cessna 310 aircraft crashed into a trans-mission line in East Palo Alto and shut down power for most of Palo Alto. As paramedics, firefighters, and police worked to secure the crash location, SBC staff worked to make sure we could continue to serve our community.

James Innes was at SBC’s Hillview Center when the power suddenly went out. “First, I checked on the generator, and checked in with a col-league next door,” James said. “The generator was in good shape, and our neighbors were also on emergency power. It wasn’t until later that we heard about the plane crash.” James met up with Vince Yalon, SBC Administrator, and began putting together a response plan. Over in the Components and Distribution Lab, Dianne Geary’s first instinct was to connect with our hospitals. “Well, my very first thought was not something that could be printed in PulsePoint,” she said, “but I immediately called all of our hospi-tals to let them know that we were having a power outage and asked them if they were affected and checked their inventory status. Stanford sounded just as stressed as we were.” Stanford Hospital and Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital were also running on emergency power. As part of their own emergency response plans, these two major facilities postponed non-emergen-cy surgeries. Meanwhile, James and others learned the cause of the outage, and that—according to a statement from PG&E—power would be out for approximately eight hours.

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James held re-cap meetings with all managers and supervisors to better understand the multitude of problems that can arise during emergencies, and how to handle them best.

“When we learned that we would not have power restored for hours, we had to figure out what activities and tests were really es-sential, and how to get them done,” said Christine Martens, HLA Lab manager. “We were fortunate, in a way, that the hospital was also on emergency power and was functioning at minimal levels. Clinics were closed and most surgery was postponed, including at least one sched-uled transplant. That meant that we did not get many samples to test or prepare for storage.” At 10 a.m., SBC’s managers met to discuss the plan for the day. “Well, actually, there were two plans for the day, reported James. “Plan A was how to get us through to 6 p.m. without power, and Plan B was how to get us through the entire night without power.” Vince and JoAnn Tucker made and announced the decision to move forward with collections as normal. “It was an opportunity for us to find out where the gaps in our emergency planning are,” said Vince. The Hill-view and Campus Donor Centers would operate on a regular schedule with only emergency power. Since power was scarce, the group de-cided to release some staff early for the day. The Mountain View Donor Center was unaffected by the outage and continued business as usual. The group agreed to meet again at 2:30 p.m. for a status update. With the HVAC system down, lab equipment running, and the warm sunny day outside, things got (literally) heated at Hillview and Campus. “My top priority was making sure that Technical Services, Donor Services and our server room were functioning properly on emergency power. Working with James, we got fans, additional light-

«Lab staff were given headlamps to help them see in the dark.

how we dealt10 hours without power: 10 hours without power:

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Think about all of the things you, your department, and even your family may need to survive for a few days:

• food• water• medications• money• first-aid supplies

Stanford EH&S offers a class called Personal Emergency Preparedness, EHS-5090. Attendees learn how to prepare themselves, their family and their home to survive the next disaster. Attendees will receive information on emergency kits, family preparedness plans, fire safety, earthquake prepared-ness and more. The class costs $75, which can be paid with STAP funds. Attendees get a choice of receiving a backpack worth $70 with first aid kit and disaster es-sentials or a CD with a disaster plan. The first session is scheduled for May 14 form 12 noon to 1 in CR 274 at Hillview. Please contact James Innes (725-9837; [email protected]) for details.

your safety

ing, and extension cords set up to make it work for the day,” said Mi-chelle Harmon, Facilities Manager. According to Dianne, “the most fantastic thing was the IS department getting SafeTrace back up. Once that happened, all we had to deal with was the inconvenience of being in the dark with fans. Harry Sussmann and Dr. Chris got us some head lamps and it became quite the fashion statement in the Components Lab.” In fact, there were several instances of cross-departmental assistance that day. Karen Paganelli, Recruitment manager, and the Tele-Recruitment staff got some much-appreciated help from Mountain View Collections staff. “They checked eligibility before we called donors,” said Karen. “We were able to keep platelet collections going with their help.” At 2:30, the management team reconvened and updated each other on the status of their respective depart-ments. When the power didn’t come back on at 4 p.m.—which was the expected time of restoration—James was concerned, but not surprised. He had confidence in SBC’s preparedness: “The first four hours of planning were crucial. After that ‘equalization time,’ we had a good sense of control, and were ready for a night of processing blood with minimal power if neces-sary,” he said.

It wasn’t necessary after all. Power was restored at 6:08 p.m. after being out for approximately 10 hours. James learned a few lessons that day, firstly, that documentation is criti-cal. “If the situation were a large-scale natural disaster, we’d need to provide FEMA with documentation of what steps we’d already taken,” he said. “Also, in high-anxiety situations, it’s easy to forget exactly what you have done and not done. Keeping a journal, or at least running list, is key.” James also realized that even though the power outage was relatively brief, it’s important to consider food and water. Many staff were so busy with keeping the Blood Center opera-tional during the outage that they didn’t have the opportunity to step away and have lunch. “I’m really grateful to have such dedicated co-workers—for instance, I know Brenda Glover worked the whole day without stopping for lunch—that’s just the kind of person she is,” said James. Dianne was satisfied overall with the Lab’s performance that day. “I learned that our current processes work. The worst thing was that our newer staff hadn’t yet been trained on downtime procedures, which is not something that you can learn on the fly. Our department trainer will train the newer staff on downtime forms and take care of that,” Dianne said.

This slide, taken from a de-briefing presentation that James put together, shows the gaps we found in our emer-gency preparedness plan.

Since she hasn’t experienced this type of an emergency at the Blood Cen-ter before, Michelle walked away with a much better understanding of our e-power situation. “Discovering what ad-ditional emergency lighting and power we need was the most valuable lesson I learned,” she said. This sentiment was shared by many. Christine added that together, the HLA Lab discussed how they could better manage a power failure by having at least one of each of their essential instruments on e-power, and how to use e-power judiciously. Overall, the 10 hours without power was a valuable learning experi-ence—almost like a drill. “The plane crash was a terrible tragedy, but I’m glad we had the opportunity to take a real-world look at our preparedness —without the widespread devastation or added risk to patients that a natural disaster could bring,” said Vince. “It made us a better Blood Center.”

The lockers in front of our Hillview Center contain water, first aid supplies, emergency tools, tarps, etc. QA plans to add emergency rations of food and water in the next few months.

[how we dealt, continued:]

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eDonor» Hemasphere»eDonor is a new donor management system that we will “go-live” with on April 26. It will improve all of our donor-facing interactions, including the loyalty store, donor ac-counts and wellness information, e-mail communications, blood drive coordinator accounts, and, for the first time, allow real-time appointment-making. eDonor will interface with SafeTrace (to get donor information) and Hemasphere (to get blood drive information). It will also help us create appointments and manage call lists. We are working with eDonor on a few enhancements that will be released at a later date, including specialized call list creation for HLA type-specific and RBC antigens, and improved donation appointment control. eDonor planning has been underway for more than six months, under project leader Harry Sussman and with sup-port from several depart-ments: IT, Recruitment, Marketing, and PR. The eDonor team will be in touch with SBC staff, donors, and drive coordinators to educate about using this great new system.

As you may know, little over a year ago, SBC implemented Hemasphere—software our account managers use for blood drive scheduling, logistics planning and task tracking, blood drive coordinator management, and staff scheduling. We re-cently revisited the original Hemasphere implementation to enhance functionality, and are rolling out changes in March. Hemasphere is now being housed on a permanent blade server—a significant change that required remodeling the server room and re-configuring and validating with new HP blade servers. The new servers run server virtualization technology from VMware. The big benefit is that our servers are now optimized into multiple virtual machines (which minimizes the risk of crashes). More of our staff will be able to access Hemasphere because of this new, robust server home. We also worked with the manufacturer to allow He-masphere to interface with SafeTrace. The added value is that our account managers will now be able to get detailed donor data from their blood drives—first time donors, ABO and Rh types, donor flow per hour, donor reactions, quan-tity not sufficient units (QNS), and double venipuncture. They are very excited to have this info! But perhaps the most exhilarated individuals are Mary Mojali and Jennifer Mauricio who have been manually entering some of the interface data since November 2008.

system updatessystem updates

Back row, from left: Harpreet Sandhu, Julie Ruel, Barbi Meehan, Jen Reczkowski, Frances Hsu; Front row, from left: Karen Paganelli, Harry Sussman, Brooke Wilson

The Spring 2010 corporate teams from Team in Training raised over $70,000 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS). Our team participated in the Inaugural Greenlight Organic Go Green Saint Patrick’s Day 5K/10K Run held at Vasona Lake in Los Gatos, CA, benefitting the Leukemia and Lym-phoma Society and other charities. In addition to raising money and awareness for LLS, Team in Training collected approximately 200 pairs of athletic shoes that will either be recycled or reused by people in need. This not only gives these shoes a new life, but keeps them out of our landfills. Also, there were no individual plastic water bottles used on the

Team in Training

SBC’s very own Team in Training, from left: Jennifer Mauricio-Carvajal, Gerlie Bernardino, and Mallory Hayes.

Gerlie Bernardino finished the 5K in 52:02Mallory Hayes finished the 10K in 60:02Jennifer Mauricio-Carvajal finished the 5K in 56:16

course and all of the cups used were paper and recyclable. Event T-shirts were also made of recycled materials—it took 10 two-liter plastic bottles to make the fabric for each of those technical T-shirts. We will meet at Hillview in the breezeway on May 13 to put to-gether a team to train for the Jun-gle Run in Los Gatos on July 11. If we can get just 10 participants on our corporate team, the SBC logo will be printed on the race and cycling jerseys of the Silicon Valley and Monterey Bay Area Chapter for the Summer 2010 season! That’s over 2000 jerseys! Please contact Mallory Hayes (736-2259; [email protected]) if you’d like to learn more.

Congrats, ladies!

Administration»

Technical Services»

It’s baby fever! Pam Meceda (Pro-cessing Lab) gave birth to a healthy and beautiful baby girl (her first; she has two older boys) in January. Linda Nelms (Research) had her second girl a little ahead of schedule on March 8 (see photo on page 6). Monica Ochoa (Lab Project Manager) is expecting her first boy in May. In other great news, Nadine Lilo-maiava’s (Component Lab) daughter received a full scholarship (tuition and room and board) to go to Santa Clara University. The Processing Lab sent its first tubes for HLA testing in February. These tubes are drawn from female platelet donors that have been preg-nant three or more times. If the test is positive for HLA antibodies, these women will no longer be able to donate platelet products but will be encouraged to donate whole blood. The purpose of this new test is to help prevent TRALI in patients. In January, the Com-ponents Lab changed the process for bacterial testing of platelet products. They increased the amount of sam-ple used from 4mL to 8mL. The purpose is to make bac-terial testing more sensitive. Also, the Caridian platelet bags include the device to sample the platelets for bacterial testing, so the lab no longer needs to attach the device to the bag. This saves time and money.

On Feb. 16 we implemented HLA Antibody testing. All female platelet donors who have been pregnant three or more times will be tested for anti-bodies that can cause TRALI. The first

donor who tested positive for this antibody, Janet Silber-man, agreed to share her perspective about making the transition from platelet donor to whole blood donor in our Explaining The HLA Antibody Test brochure. She reports feeling very sad that she can no longer donate platelets but is happy that she can still make a differ-ence at SBC. Here’s the latest on the 05-FNN, Hemogram Chal-lenge: Centers were given a challenge of getting seven donors to agree to have their platelets tested by using the 05-FNN Hemograms. A test result of 190 or higher en-ables a donor to be convert-ed to the platelet apheresis program. The challenge has

been in effect for a month. The staff at Mountain View have completed 44 he-mograms, Campus staff have done 42, and Hillview staff have done 21. These forms are then sent to the Tele-Recruit-

Apheresis»

Administration has added a new face—well, maybe not so new! Julie Engstrom has come upstairs to fill an Administrative Assistant position in the business office after nine years in the HLA Lab. Before that, she worked for Stanford Hospital in the security office for three years. Julie originally hails from Southeastern Wisconsin – you may be able to discern this when you hear her speak – but has been in California “since the earthquake.” She has two boys – one of whom (Dillon Engstrom) works at SBC, and she will be celebrating her 30th wedding anniversary this July. She enjoys swimming, and participates in her church choir and praise team.

department newsdepartment newsers who use them to get whole blood donors into the platelet program. 107 forms have been collected so far! Great work to all three Centers for helping us get platelets from these dedicated whole blood donors! The challenge will continue for a few more months and the race is on to see which center can convert the highest number of whole blood donors to apheresis. Here’s the latest on Apheresis staff: Bea Wang, RN, was promoted to Senior Blood Bank Nurse. This promo-tion requires that a nurse be employed at SBC for at least 18 months and the nurse must read and pass competen-cies in order to be promoted. Bea has taken on training of new Apheresis em-ployees, continuing training activities in Apheresis and is an excellent charge nurse in Centers and on mobiles. Kathryn Fields, RN, Dee Loh, RN and Raquel Morgia, RN, are working on their competencies to do the same. We also have some new equipment in Apheresis. Wiring was completed in the three Centers to enable the Aphere-sis Department to implement the Ca-dence System. This software/hardware system will allow immediate uploads of the Trima devices to Caridian’s com-puters in Colorado. This will give us quicker access to reports and allow for investigations in real-time as opposed to waiting for a rep to come to the Centers, download the data and then upload to Colorado. This also means a rep from Caridian does not have to physically come to SBC to download data for statistical reports given to us on quarterly basis. Thank you to IS, Michelle Harmon and Brenda Glover for getting this done.

Mallory shows Julie the ropes of work-ing in Administration.

The HLA Testing brochure features Janet Silberman, former platelet donor.

The Technical Services Depart-ment did a great job of continuing to work when the power went out for 10 hours on Feb. 17 due to the unfortu-nate plane accident. Thanks to all for working as a team!

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Our employee of the month in January was Car-men Fong. Carmen is a part-time Tele-Recruiter and has been working with the blood center almost 7 years. She is very dependable, pleasant on the phones. February’s em-ployee of the month, Gloria Zaechelein, is a full time Tele-Recruiter and has been working with us for five years. She comes to work with full energy and a great smile for all her co-workers.

Telerecruitment» Public Relations»

Like other departments, we recently imple-mented HLA Antibody testing. Our first batch of test results just came back and about 25% of them are HLA positive, which is about what we expected. Kudos to our techs because this process takes more time, yet they have taken it on in stride. We just finished validating our backup he-matology analyzer the Pentra 60C+. It’s a really good instrument. Not only is it a backup, but it greatly enhances the workflow in our QC lab, as one tech can process pre/post counts, while the other can process QC samples. No more “shar-ing” the analyzer. Also, we are in the process of changing to Selective T. cruzi (Chagas) testing. This means a donor only needs to be tested once for T. cruzi (we currently test each donation). We hope to implement this by April 1 as the price for this off-site test increases that day. We also recently heard news that we may be able to bring this test back in-house in 4-6 months. We can hardly wait, not just for cost but for control and conve-nience. We do the best job of testing anywhere! At the end of March we will be upgrading our current PRISM Analyzer that runs five viral mark-ers tests. It will receive a new look, as all of the exterior panels are being replaced. In addition, what we are really excited about is the computer is being upgraded from an old DOS operat-ing system to Windows (and a touch screen to boot!). The Processing Lab is now entirely auto-mated and swimming in touch screens!

Processing Lab»

Public Relations is as busy as ever supporting donor education and recruitment. Brooke Wilson just breathed a huge sigh of relief having re-ceived final sign-off on new cards she created to give donors when deferred for low hemoglobin, travel and medication, the most common defer-rals. Once printed, medical history staff will have a new donor education tool to help them when counseling deferred donors. Now prepar-ing for the transition from IMS to eDonor, a new donor communication and loyalty system, is keeping Brooke very busy. After a busy few months writing and pitch-ing press releases for promotions and events, Michele Hyndman is now concentrating on acquiring new patients stories for donor outreach and is creating a series of patient-focused video ads which will run at local movie theaters to recruit donors. The first of which features Kevin Murphy, a 13 year-old heart transplant recipient. Visit SBC’s YouTube page to watch them as they are completed. Deanna Bolio continues to produce the SBC Weekly Report every Monday, in addition to all of the mobile blood drive publicity. If you have something to feature in the Weekly Report, please email her at [email protected]. She is always on the lookout for timely news to share.

At Stanford Blood Center, we provide hope for the future: teaching tomorrow's leaders in transfusion medicine,

researching to unlock mysteries inherent in blood, and connecting donors to patients every day.

In recognition of your exceptional contributions to Stanford Blood Center, specifically the Tele-Recruitment

department, you, Gloria Zaechelein, are named

Employee of the Monthfor the month of January. Your dedication is both

appreciated by and in line with the mission of the Blood Center. On behalf of Donor Services, local patients,

and blood donors, THANK YOU!

best of hat day

2009

Dr. Susan Galel

Patti Lendio

Felina Roque

Jordan Kohana Wang made her debut a little early on March 8. She weighed in at 4 lbs., 10 oz. The family is doing well. Congrats to Linda and James!

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department newsdepartment news

Taken from the SBC Facebook page, here is an example of the interaction and response we get from our donors during a critical shortage.

Marketing»Marketing has embraced the need to recruit male platelet donors in light of TRALI screenings through outreaches and presentations with predominantly male community groups. A viral marketing campaign to access Generation Y donors is in the works for the summer. Through the use of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, our abil-ity to communicate with individuals outside our database has opened us up to a whole new world of potential blood donors. See the back page for an example of how SBC has utilized these sites. The head of pediatric cardiology at LPCH will speak at our Hillview Center on March 25 for Café Scientifique on “Mending a Broken Heart”. There will be an April event at the Cabana Hotel for a public screening of our DVD, and to express appreciation to its makers. Prominent friends and supporters of the SBC will be invited. Also in April, Marketing will begin cross-training some Tele-Recruiters on health fair and public event promotions and donor recruitment. This will provide our exclusively phone-utilizing Tele-recruiters some face time with the pub-lic where they may augment their skills and benefit to SBC in a personal way. We will be hosting a platelet donor-specific event, called “Easy as ABC” at our Hillview Center on May 20 for appreciation, education, and a plea for an increased number of donations per year. Supplementary donor recruiting on campus at DeAnza College has helped in setting another new record number of donations at DeAnza, 193—triple what we’ve previously collected.

On Feb. 26, we wished Anita Tys-seland farewell and goodbye on her last day at SBC. Not long after, we said goodbye to another exceptional team member, Barbara Cobb. On March 5, great fun was had by all at the ladies’ retirement party. We miss them already!

Collections»

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RecyclingOur janitorial company has asked to remind each department to break down their own empty boxes for recycling. This request applies to all three locations and is much appreciated. The City of Palo Alto is now offering more recycling options. The Blood Center can now recycle, on-site, the rigid plastic trays we receive kits and supplies in. Please stack these with your broken-down cardboard boxes and the janitor will take them out to the recycling bin. If your staff used to take these home to recycle they should now leave them at the Blood Center.

SBC VehiclesDo you drive a Blood Center vehicle? If so, please remember to lock all the doors when you return to the Blood Center. We receive 2-3 notices a week about SBC vehicles being found unlocked by our security officer. It is your responsibility to lock up. If there is a problem with the vehicle please contact Michelle to have it repaired. If you are involved in an accident or accident-ly hit something, your supervisor or Administra-tion must be notified immediately. Refer to SOP 21-03-01 for more information on what to do if involved in an accident.

best of hat day

2009

Dr. Chris Gonzalez

JoAnn Tucker

Facilities»

Facility requestsReminder that all Facility requests—including requests for Deo—need to go through Michelle first. Sometimes urgent issues come up and you need Deo right away, but please take the time to call Michelle and at least leave a message about your urgent need. He is typically available to take care of urgent requests, but there are times when he becomes “double-booked” without knowing. For routine requests, fill out the 21-F01 Facilities Request Form and e-mail to [email protected]. This form should be used for all three locations, including requests for long-term storage.

Parking at HillviewOur neighbors at 3375 Hillview have notified us that their security will start leaving a note on unauthorized cars parked in their designated area. Please make sure that you are parking in the SBC-designated spots and have your SBC parking sticker displayed. Also, park your car straight and within the lines so there is parking for everyone. If you notice anyone from 3375 parking in the SBC-designated area please con-tact Michelle with the license plate, make and model, and location in the parking lot. A diagram of the designated parking space is posted on the board across from the mailboxes.

Components and Distribution Lab»We’ve hired three new people: David Lancaster and Annie Mirsoian are new to SBC and Katalin Tallai transferred over from Administration to Components. In October, we hosted our annual Mat Hat-ter’s Tea Party and were very glad that so many folks participated. The Components Lab has consistently maintained 96% leukoreduction of RBC and have made all the products necessary for the five hospitals we serve. Distribution has been doing a great job taking care of those incredibly busy hospitals by making sure they have the blood products they need.

In February we became an exporter! Twice a month, SBC ships 36 transfusable plasma products to American Red Cross (ARC) to service hospitals in Southern California. This exporting contract is through the Blood Innovations as-sociation. Dianne Geary would like to recognize the fantastic job that Components and Distribution staff did on Feb. 17 (the day of the power out-age). We were working in the dark, roasting in the heat (the air conditioning was off) and still processing and distributing components. Excel-lent job and well-trained staff! It’s hard to take a disaster and make it look like just another day in the Components Lab, but everyone was up for the challenge and looked terrific with miner’s lights on their heads!

If you have any suggestions or ideas on how to make this a better and safer work place let us know. There is a suggestion box in the lunchroom at all three locations. Facilities Manager: Michelle Harmon; [email protected]; 444-5722

André Stull

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new employees

Ellen Peters R.N., Collections: Ellen grew up in Palo Alto and is a Paly grad! She has a 22-year-old daughter, and a 24-year-old son. Before her children were born, Ellen worked as an OR nurse at Peninsula Hospital, and has many, many hours of volunteer work logged in the school system while raising her family. Ellen loves to play tennis (which she does competitively), swim, walk the dog, and sing in her church choir.

Karen Mijares-Blanco, R.N., Collections: Karen grew up in the Philippines and moved to the U.S. “because of love.” She lives in Milpitas with her husband and two children, a 5-year-old son and 4-year-old daughter. She loves spending time doing things with her family. Both of her kids are involved in dance, tap and ballet. Before coming to SBC, Karen was a Chart Coordinator for the Next Day Surgery Department at Stanford Hospital.

An Le, R.N., Collections: An grew up in San Jose, and worked previously at Children’s Hospital, Oakland, in the Reha-bilitation and Burn Unit. She has two girls, ages 8 and 10. An loves to cross-stitch and go biking. She recently raised money riding from San Francisco to L.A. as part of the AIDS Ride.

Deborah Gatti, Human Resources Manager: Deborah is a sunshine loving, “born and bred California girl,” and has been to Cabo San Lucas 12 times in the past 11 years! She has a 16-year-old son who is eager to donate blood! Deborah holds rank in several martial arts disciplines, and is an avid photographer and scrapbooker. Before coming to SBC, Deb-orah worked at Mervyns for 25 years—11 years in store management and 14 years in HR. She says “I’m excited to be part of the blood center because at my previous company we sold socks and underwear, and at SBC we help save lives.”

new employees

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10

years of serviceyears of service

Vidya Ayer has a computer science background, does a lot of volunteer work with various Indian non-profits in the area and helps on mobiles in the East Bay; Shelby Baker is doing a Medical Assisting course and helps in the canteen at the Campus Donor Center and on mobiles; Anita Beddell, referred to us by her cousin MaryAnn Yadollahi, helps in the canteen on mobiles between phlebotomy school and raising a family; Michael Besner moved here from Canada and helps on mobiles doing label table and shuttles; Nana Brobbey is a retired LVN and does a regular canteen shift at the Hillview Donor Center and also helps on mobiles (where his past experience as a taxi driver helps him find them!); Joseph Chang is in the process of applying to nursing school and does a regular canteen shift at the Hillview Donor Center and also some mobiles; Aruna Datla was between jobs but wanted to stay involved in the medical field so helped in the canteen on mobiles, but a new job means she will be less available now; Dawn Chuck is helping with special projects in Apheresis; Audrey De Guzman is a Mountain View High School student and does a regular canteen shift at the Campus Donor Center; Rediat Demilew is a Fremont High School student and does regular canteen shifts at the Hillview and Moun-tain View Donor Centers; Yujia Ding is a Monta Vista High School student and will fill-in on mobiles and at our Mountain View Donor Center until a regular shift opens up; Korissa Eldredge, a student at Foothill College who is considering a career in the medical field, fills in at the Centers and on mobiles; Jane Esberg works at Stanford and helps on local mobiles and some fill in at the Campus and Hillview Donor Centers; Cheryl Franke works full time as a paralegal and helps on weekend mobiles; Flora Hsu volunteers locally at Hoover Elementary School and helps here at SBC in the Histo Lab; Kevin Kawamoto, Judy’s Kawamoto’s son, and a student at Evergreen College, helps in the canteen on mobiles; Brian Kuczynski, a Mountain View High School student, does a regular canteen shift at the Mountain View Donor Center; Tracy Lagomarsino just finished phlebotomy school and is helping in the canteen on mo-biles and filling in at the Centers; Veronica Minnis is a pre-nursing student at De Anza and helps in the canteen on mobiles; Suprad-ha Nagineni is a physician from India and helps in the canteen on mobiles; Hemali Naik is also a physician from India and helps in the canteen on mobiles and fills in at the Campus and Hillview Donor Centers—her husband makes sure we have a spot each month to park the BloodMobile at White Plaza! Basila Nathan is a Homestead High School student and does fill in at the Mountain View and Hillview Donor Centers until an ongoing shift opens up; Bruce Rich is in phlebotomy school and does regular canteen shifts at the Centers; Evelyn Rowell is a Mountain View High School student and will fill-in at the Mountain View Donor Center until an ongo-ing shift opens up; Janet Silberman, featured in our TRALI brochure, is helping with special projects in Apheresis; Manju Sharma is following in the footsteps of her son Ajay who was an SBC volunteer, and helps in the canteen on mobiles in the Milpitas area; Shilpan Sheth, a Santa Teresa High School student, and mom Sandhya Sheth, also a Red Cross volunteer, do a regular canteen shift at the Hillview Donor Center; Darrin Stobaugh is a recent phlebotomy school graduate and helps on mobiles doing canteen and shuttles; Fionna Sun, a UCB student, helps in the CIL Lab; Victoria Thoits, a recent paralegal retiree, does a regular canteen shift at our Hillview Donor Center and also on projects for Marketing; MaryJane Villar, a regular donor, helps in the canteen on mobiles.

new volunteers

Many of our co-workers have been invited to celebrate their service and contributions to the School of Medicine at the Dean’s Staff Recognition Program on April 22, 2010. This year a reception and program will be held at the new Li Ka Shing Center for Learning and Knowledge (LKSC) to honor employees who reached milestone years of service last year. SBC is well represented by the following people, grouped by their number of years of service:

Rachel BoveMonica Doleshel- AguirreChristine KungRudy LeonAmable PahimulinPette PamukcuElaine SugasawaraPhyllis ThompsonJoAnn Tucker

Pepito DyManuel DyMa ElepanoLeilani FaafiaGlenn GonzalezWendy HafkenschielLinda KawaguchiDeborah LandisMary MaquiranWilliam MebaneKevin O’NeillSioux PavkovichAntonio RuizMichele ScrogginsRobert ShermanNicole WawrzyczekCynthia Zapanta

Susan EnriquezXiomara HernandezJudy Kawamoto

Barbara CobbTeresita CuiCynthia EvoraDeo MadridPereyra MariaDeborah TatumCherri WongEstrelita Zambrano

Maria De SouzaMaurice Tan

5 10 15 20 25

Glenn GonzalezLinda Kawaguchi Rudy Leon

Xiomara Hernandez Cynthia Evora

Maurice Tan

new volunteers

on the cover:on the cover:

Mary, Jen, and Carlene bring the balloons and the happy to a retirement party for Anita and Barbara.

Julie and Michele are happy to be photographed with Sharks player Manny Malhotra at our annual blood drive at the Shark Tank.

Kevin chats with Brennah Payne’s mom, Heather, at the Precious Mettle Breakfast.

Anita and Barbara open gifts in front of scores of admirers.

Something’s in the water at SBC. Congrats to Linda, Nicole, and Monica!

The eDonor implementation team has been working hard on this major system upgrade.

James does a postmortem meet-ing about the power outage with executive management.

Harpreet and Barbara say their goodbyes.