REGIONAL LIAISON COMMITTEE, AB & NWT SUMMARY NOTES of the meeting of the Canadian Blood Services held at the Calgary Centre Clinic on Friday, October 1, 2010 at 11AM to 3PM (MST). PRESENT: GUESTS: REGRETS: Robin Hood (co-chair) Bonnie Osoff Bultz Stephanie Perilli Lynda Phelan Asheesh Saincher Kathy Yetzer Todd Campbell Dr. Trevor Trinh Jamie Pytel Marina Giovanetti Diana Carfantan Janene Flath Dr. Elaine Bland Susan Matsumoto (co-chair) Marc Plante Bonnie Monteith Ian McDonald Joe Michielsen Maria Torralba (Minutes Recorder) Colleen Young Darshan Kang Darren Neuberger Sharon Schultz Lindsay Lenny Ingrid Langhammer 1.0 OPENING OF THE MEETING Susan Matsumoto and Robin Hood (co-chairs) opened the meeting at 11:00AM. Robin Hood welcomed those present and conducted round table introductions. 1.1 REVIEW OF AGENDA Robin Hood reviewed the meeting agenda. No additions or revisions were made on the agenda. The members commented how much they appreciated Dr. Ackers presentation at the last meeting and that an annual presentation or update from his team would be worth considering. It was noted that Watson Gale, received recognition recently for being a 2010 Canadian General Counsel Awards (CGCA) Finalist for Mid Market Excellence. ACTION: Robin Hood was requested by the members to send Watson Gale a congratulatory letter on behalf of the Alberta RLC members for the award. Susan also shared that Canadian Blood Service Lethbridge clinic was one of the Southern Alberta businesses and organizations recently nominated for the Lethbridge Chamber Business of the Year awards. 1.2 APPROVAL OF SUMMARY NOTES The minutes of March 5, 2010 meeting were approved as circulated. Page 1 of 8
2.0 BUSINESS ARISING 2.1 Collections/Operations Update Susan Matsumoto discussed the status of CBS collections focusing on Alberta s performance. Reference the handout circulated at the meeting entitled Collections Update. We have been challenged with achieving Collections target this year across the country. Part of that may be attributed to being asked the previous fiscal year (2009/2010) to scale back on collections. It took a while for most of the centers across the country to recover from the long term impacts of being asked to scale back on collections. Also, summer months have been historically challenging for collections. On Platelet collections, Alberta is behind target for Large Volume Platelet (LVP) Collections. Part of the challenge is due to the type of machine we use in the region for LVP collections. In Alberta, we use the MCS+ machine which is a slower machine. The likelihood of us getting a unit is reduced because of the requirement that a donor cannot be on the machine longer than 100 minutes. The other type of machine, called the Trima, goes through the whole process faster. Another issue we have in Alberta has to do with donors platelet count. Alberta has a higher altitude that is affecting donors platelet count. Plasma collections are doing well. So far we are the only region, out of the 4 that collect plasma, who is meeting Plasma targets. 2.2 Donor Care Associate Susan Matsumoto gave an update of Donor Care Associate (DCA), formerly called Multi Skilled Worker. Health Canada has given approval for CBS to pilot the Multi Skilled Worker/DCA concept. The future would be that the DCA will not only do phlebotomy but also do the screening of donors in clinics. On June 21 st, Winnipeg was identified as the first pilot site for DCA. On Sept 17 th, the announcement was made that Calgary might be chosen as the second pilot site. This would mean that we would begin our discussions with the employees unions to explore the possibility of Calgary to be the 2 nd pilot site for DCA. Going ahead with the pilot in Calgary will be contingent on the negotiations with the unions. In Winnipeg, the unions have come to a consensus that they will engage in the DCA pilot and that the unions will not appeal/ interfere with the pilot. Apprehensions are still there but they agree to move the pilot forward. 2.3 Communications Update/Freeman Verdict Bonnie Monteith gave an update on the Freeman Trial Verdict. Reference handout entitled Freeman Verdict Communications. The verdict of this case came out and all aspects were in favor of CBS. Bonnie clarified the ongoing misnomer on this issue that this policy is discriminating towards gay men. The fact is the MSM policy not only applies to the gay population but to all men who have had sex with another man, regardless of the type of sexual orientation. Next steps on this issue include correcting any inaccuracies that may still go out in any communication/publications. As well us revisiting our approach to campuses when we discuss this topic because the Canadian Federation of Student groups are very high Page 2 of 8
profile activists that are against our MSM policy. Pushing our research agenda will continue to be undertaken. Questions raised by the members: From those individuals who were deferred due to the MSM, what is our medical proof that their blood is not safe? Stephanie P. Over 39% of new HIV cases in Canada come from the gay male population. The Canadian AIDS Society has statistics that support the fact that men who have had sex with men, have a higher rate of HIV. Given that now we have the knowledge that it is a gift not a right to be able to donate, is there a procedure that CBS can put in place so that CBS cannot be sued again for the same/similar reason? Asheesh S. This case has set the precedent. Freeman has 30 days from the date of ruling if they would like to file an appeal. After that the case will be considered closed. 2.4 OTDT Update Kathy Yetzer (Program Manager, Organ Registries) and Todd Campbell (Manager, Change Management, Organ Registries) who both joined via teleconference provided an OTDT Update. The discussion focused on the unique healthcare initiative called Living Donor Paired Exchange (LDPE). Reference handout entitled: Living Donor Paired Exchange - A Unique National Healthcare Initiative. The discussion covered the following: (a) an introduction to the living donor kidney paired exchange, (b) outline on how the national LDPE Registry was created; how it works; and how well it is working and (c) some of the lessons learned and the challenges of developing and implementing a national IT healthcare initiative. Questions from the members: Under the domino chain, what is the frequency of the non directed donor - is it common? Stephanie P. It is more common than one would think. There are currently 19 of them in 2 years. The numbers are increasing. I noticed that the donation and transplant are all done in the same day. Is there a medical reason for that or is it just to ensure that the donor doesn t change his mind? Robin H. It is ideal for the procedures to happen all in the same day but it does not happen all the time. In other registries, it shows that donors hardly ever change their mind to donate. It is more to minimize the probability of the donor/recipient from getting sick. Although we aim to do them all at the same time, we are also willing to accommodate what we need to in order to get as many transplants done as possible Are there other countries that have similar registries in existence? Stephanie P. Yes. The US has a number of registries that are regional not national, Europe has it, Australia (building it). We are not the first but we are progressing faster than most. Can this be similar to OneMatch where it can become an international exchange/registry? There have been talks about this. We do put out of country donors in our registry if our recipient have an out of country friend/relative willing to donate, we do put them in our registry. We are just facing logistical challenges to get blood samples and get the donor here for transplant but it is possible. In the future we might join some of the American registries and they can potentially join in to ours because logistically crossing the border travel is no more than traveling across our country. Page 3 of 8
On the Marketing Plan and Strategy, what are your next steps to get the word out on LDPE? Stephanie P. For now the challenge is to respect some donors preference to remain anonymous. Some donors want to remain anonymous and some recipients do not like to know who donated to them. This somewhat restricts our ability to do publication/news releases. There are pamphlets we provide at the transplant program. Non-directed donors may be targeted in the near future in our publications as well. Has there been a case when they didn t feel comfortable donating to someone they don t know because they are not a family member/relative? Asheesh S. Before they come in to the registry they are asked to sign a consent form which states the fact that they are aware that they are not compatible but they are willing to donate to someone other than the person they originally intend to donate to, in order for a matched donor to give to their friend/relative. To date, we have not encountered any one backing out yet. If there have been any rejections and they have already gone through the LDPE, can they go back to the list again? Bonnie O. Yes, they are open to come back in the future. There is never a guarantee that there will not be a rejection. 2.5 AMS What is it? Susan Matsumoto gave a brief overview and update on the Appointment Management Solution (AMS). Reference the handout with the same title. AMS is CBS future system for managing appointments across the country. This new system aims to eliminate paper call sheets, improve donor segmentation; integrated calling with scheduling, the data will be entered once and re-used many times. Having a single source of contact information makes it easier to respect donor preferences and monitor donor activities. Alberta is the first region to roll out this system. Today we are going live with AMS. By the end of the day Monday, we will decide if we will completely switch to AMS or if we need to go back to our previous system to further tweak AMS. After 6 weeks, the next region will roll-out. Once all sites across the country are on AMS that is when the Web Self Serve piece of AMS will be activated. 3.0 NEW BUSINESS 3.1 Product and Hospital Services Hospital Customer Strategy Overview and Survey Colleen Young, Hospital Liaison Specialist for Alberta/NWT, joining via teleconference provided a presentation on the Hospital Customer Satisfaction Survey conducted by Ipsos Reid. The report contains the results of an online survey among hospital customers. All hospital customers were emailed an invitation to participate in the survey. A total of 198 surveys were completed resulting in a margin of error of ± 5.2%. The field period for this research spanned May 26th to June 24th, 2010. Surveys were completed by customers of large, medium, and small hospitals in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan / Manitoba, Ontario (Southern, Central, and North/East), and the Atlantic Provinces. To drive the discussion with the members, Colleen asked the members to respond to the following questions: Where do you see opportunities for CBS to partner with hospitals? Page 4 of 8
What kinds of things do you think we could do to grow our partnerships with hospitals? How do you think we could better understand hospitals needs? Do we have a CBS representative in the Hospitals within their hospital? - Stephanie Yes, in Alberta that is Colleen s role. Most of HLS time is spent visiting mostly with larger and medium hospitals. There is an opportunity to move outside the physician scope for partnership in educating recipients and their families about blood and blood components. We can consider expanding to those who work directly with patients who are not doctors (i.e. nurses, therapists, etc) One of the challenges the HLS are facing is how to get people in the room when they do educational sessions. Having those working in the hospitals to directly advocate these sessions will certainly help. Bonnie O. suggested doing these educational sessions via TeleHealth (videoconference) now that the Alberta Health System (AHS) is in place. This allows one to broadcast sessions to different AHS sites at the same time. The group expressed their interest in knowing more about the HLS and their role as a future discussion topic. Bonnie O. shared the prescription cards (small pamphlets) that they use in the Hospitals that may be a good idea for CBS to take advantage of. 3.2 The Road Ahead Susan presented the Road Ahead initiative that the Donor and Clinic Services group in CBS is spearheading. Reference the handout entitled Our Road Ahead. The purpose of the presentation is to introduce the concept and to ask for feedback from the members on how we might create a contemporary, edgier approach to recruitment and our donor experience. The members were tasked with a group work wherein they were presented with a theme and a follow up question. Group work results are found below: Theme 1: Edgier Marketing to Drive Donor Recruitment How comfortable are you with edgier Marketing? Ideas? Very Comfortable necessary for recruiting donors of all ages and lifestyles Carry Ad good, edgy, unpredictable Ben not effective Jake Good ad; has strong message but not too graphic, also not predictable What s in it for me message to appeal to certain demographic Very Comfortable. Media Social, news, advertising, entertainment is becoming edgier faster, more accessible and expected. I think we need to develop with it to keep people interested and attract more donors. Essential. Youth must see donating as a natural thing. Society has evolved to be less personal and more wireless as time passes. Hopefully recruiting becomes unnecessary. But incentives NEED to be developed for the YOUTH! Jake ad was powerful Halladay/Ben not inspiring; unless the celebrity needed blood and they can share their personal stories Beauty very real. Not too graphic but makes a good point (makes it real) Carry amazing! (so was the thank you ad) Page 5 of 8
Make a Why aren t you donating? or why are you afraid to donate? kind of ad (almost taunting or giving a challenge) What s in it for me? Focus on You can t make blood has to come from you. Jake small child, big message Carry powerful Ben ho-hum Beauty emotional; spoke to me; very powerful ad. Mt. Royal College right now is celebrating 100 years. They hired 3 graffiti artists to do graphics / art on the themes of 3 generations (boomers, mid age and youth). The display is all of community ownership using edginess. Currently vampire themed TV/movies get TV/film personalities to show positive side of blood. Theme 2: Technology Will technology improve or detract from relations with donors? Mature population may not identify may help if you provide a little training/teaching session on technology and message of CBS equestionnaire will help speed up registration people are always in a rush; want to be in and out fast Must be combination committee members all talked about motivating staff RN put her on camera, Blackberry/ facebook persons as contacts in person. Suggest to put CBS Apps for iphone Improve. Younger people live the technology. Social networking and technologies of so many things. These technologies are the future and key to the youth s involvement with CBS. Theme 3: Community Ownership of clinics Should we place more emphasis on community ownership? Have a tie up with an organization where they would pay rent for a mobile venue for a month. Or they can supervise clinics. If CBS initially provides tools and leadership, there is a good chance of success. Utilize culture using ethnic groups will create ownership and more comfort Possibility for Service Groups on a rotating basis. Partners for Life a lot of companies possess strong organizational and marketing talents. Introduce the topic of blood donation to the schools as a regular part of the school curriculum so that when they reach the age when they become eligible to donate, they would almost do it automatically/naturally ; since this was ingrained on their minds from a very young age. Theme 4: Convenience of Donating What other ways can we enhance convenience? By locating at frequent destinations. I.e. today CIBC is synonymous with Run for the Cure campaign. CBS mobiles at Bank locations especially every 15 th or end of the month when there are people cashing in their checks. This could be an opportunity to either book appointments or be an actual donation venue. Holding mobiles at Seasonal Business venues tax time; H&R Block; gift wrapping stations; food banks Rebooking done at the time of registration or send an e-mail the same day to thank the donor with a link to register on-line right away. Then closer to the donation date, send a reminder e-mail saying 56 th day is almost here. Time for your donation Page 6 of 8
Have an App for iphones reminders Childcare More flexible times (open at 7AM one day, 9 AM, etc.) Expand lifebus concept Develop a questionnaire that can be completed online prior to appointment More bloodmobiles (like the semi-truck) 3.3 NLC Report Robin passed around a list of members who are part of the National Liaison Committee. He also provided highlights from the 2 NLC meetings he attended. A lot of the information has already been covered at this meeting except for a few items which are as follows: At the meeting in June 2010, they informed the committee about Chronic Fatigue Syndrome now being a cause for permanent deferral. A report was published in medical literature which suggested that there is an association between chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and the presence of a virus called xenotropic murine leukemia virus-related virus (XMRV). The study investigators were also able to show that the XMRV virus present in the blood of CFS patients could be transmitted to cultured cells in a laboratory assay. At the September Meeting, an update on BSE (Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy) also known as the mad cow disease was provided. Guest from Health Canada and Canada Food Inspection Agency were present to inform the group that our food supply is safe, the incidents are going down significantly, check and balances are in place to ensure that we can continue to move to the next stage. Attended the Honoring Our Lifeblood event, an evening event in Ottawa. It is CBS way of celebrating the individuals and organizations who are the heart of Canada s blood system, and who provide a lifeline each year to hundreds of thousands of Canadians who need blood, blood products or stem cells. Without their commitment and support, there simply would be no blood system in Canada. Meeting with the Board took place on Sept. 21 st where they provided a report from NLC. Part of the discussion included the question on whether or not CBS has that openness and transparency to outside stakeholders. A Risk Management Strategy exercise was also done. 4.0 NEXT MEETING DATE Suggested future topics for discussion: Dr. Acker s R&D update Understanding of the Hospital Liaison Specialist (HLS) Role OTDT update AMS update Consider an extra hour for the meeting, everyone agrees, to give more time for dialogue New Creative Platform CFS XMRV update from Dana Devine Open Board Meeting is happening December 9 th in Calgary. Everyone is invited to attend. The public is allowed to speak to the CBS Board Members. Venue of the Board Meeting is to be announced. Local ads will be available closer to the date. Roundtable feedback / suggestions on the meeting: LDPE - great presentation, very informative I always learn something new at these meetings. Appreciates the opportunity to provide input, ideas, suggestions to better CBS Page 7 of 8
Stephanie shared the good news that the partnership with CBS and Stollery and Service Credit Union will now push through Feb 1-Mar 5. Possibility to involve Alberta Children s to make this a provincial initiative - still indefinite. Everyone actively contributes in the discussion. The next meeting venue will be in Edmonton. Maria T. will send out an invitation to the members to confirm meeting dates and time. 5.0 ADJOURNMENT The meeting was adjourned at 3 PM (MST). Page 8 of 8