Red Cross aims to speed up donations with RapidPass

Posted on July 14, 2015

By Adam Studzinski

BLOOMINGTON – The American Red Cross is looking to make blood donations more convenient with a new online health history system.

RapidPass, which launched this week, allows donors to complete pre-donation reading and health history questions online before they go donate.

“Donors who successfully complete the questionnaire will print out the RapidPass form on a printer, or they can email it to themselves, and they can show it to our staff on their mobile device,” External Communications Manager Ben Corey said.

Corey said this system could cut up to 15 minutes off donation times.

“What this may do is increase donor satisfaction and also may encourage them to come in for repeat donations because it further simplifies the blood donation process,” said Corey. “And makes it more convenient for them in their schedules to come in.”

Corey said the donation process before was convenient, it only took about an hour, but the Red Cross realizes people are busy.

“They have families. Sometimes an hour is tough to come by,” said Corey. “If they were able to fill out a RapidPass form on the day of their donation, before they come in, that could potentially speed up the process.”

Those wishing to use RapidPass can head to redcrossblood.org/rapidpass.

Adam Studzinski can be reached at [email protected].

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