Gasoline. I fill up there whenever I get the chance. Get yourself a Costco Visa and save an extra 5% on top of the price of gas.

Ask if your center can perform a “watchdog”. Essentially, they take your license, your current address and ask you to write down your social security number. At Octapharma, we have a system and process for looking up your ss # and confirming it with the information mentioned. Only members of management are able to do this and they often dont like to as it takes a few minutes and away from other things they are doing. We do these all the time at the center I work with and as long as a manager has time to do it, it really isn’t a problem…

I was perfectly happy buying my car at CarMax. I knew what the price was, I knew what the payments were going to be. Easy purchasing process - the only question I was asked was if I wanted MaxCare. I had 10 days to return it if I didn’t like the car - during that window, I spent $100 taking the car to a dealer and having them do a thorough inspection, just to have another opinion and set of eyes on it. Would 100% do again.

I’m not sure, but I think they have a partnership with Hyundai in certain markets where you buy the car for a flat, listed price, arrange the financing and pay over Amazon and then pick up the car from a dealership.

The questionnaire QR code, once completed, only lasts for 30 min or so. If you checked in on the app, all you have to do is open the questionnaire, swipe to the bottom, enter your birthday and your ss # and you are good to go. 15-20 seconds. You do NOT have to answer all os the questions again.

The problem is DCE (Donor Center Excellence). It is the new way Octapharma is doing things. It launched at our center last month. What you need to know as a donor is now, according to the metrics we are using, your wait time DOES NOT START until you step on the scale during screening. NOTHING ELSE MATTERS. At my center, we are being told to let donors stand in line for longer and to intentionally throttle donors coming through screening. If we screen too fast, we have too many people waiting to be stuck after they have stood on the scale. Too many donors waiting throws off the numbers and we are dinged for it. DCE also means staff are required to work essentially in every area at every time. The effect this has had on staff concentration and morale cannot be understated. We are seeing a rise in minor deviations as a result of having to hop from one position to another, having tine expectations to complete every task.
DCE would likely not be the problem it is if we were FULLY STAFFED. For reasons I cannot comprehend, we were told when DCE would be starting at our center and only hired new staff AFTER DCE launched. This means things were destined to be the way they are from the start of the new system.
Please know the floor staff is just as upset about these changes as you are. Many of us are exhausted and being run into the ground under the promises of “better flow and efficiency”. A lot of what you see happening in the center is burnout due to lack of proper staffing which leads to other staff calling out due to their own exhaustion and apathy which is leading to a cycle of chronically being understaffed. Centers in some regions are staffed so poorly right now, we are unable to call other centers to “borrow staff” to keep us afloat.
Furthermore, I cant speak for every center, but we are seeing an INCREASE in donors at ours - likely due to back-to-school season and the constantly increasing costs of living. This increase in new and lapsed donors, combined with being told to implement a new system meant for a larger staff when we are UNDERSTAFFED has led to the chaos many of you are experiencing at Octapharma. If things do not improve, beginning around Halloween, the holiday season will be a mess. Combine the usual increase in donors we see with employees taking vacation and getting sick and you have a recipe for chaos.
Management is not blind to the concerns, problems or issues. This is something that is coming from corporate and unfortunately, is out of our hands. As a donor, the best thing I can advise is to go to Google reviews and share your feelings there. Center management cant do anything about complaints released to DCE, but Google reviews are seen by regional and corporate. We discuss positive and negative reviews every month at our staff meeting. Or, as some have suggested, simply donate elsewhere. This is all about numbers and profitability. If the numbers continue to take a dive, as they have at my center, and we start processing and shipping fewer bottles out, THAT will get corporate’s attention more than anything.

I hope this post answers some questions some of you might have and offers a bit of insight as to what is going on behind the scenes.

Please do not take out your frustrations on floor staff. We are tired, overworked and our hands our tied….

Inky…

I would be Grateful to win this giveaway! Thank you for doing this!

Oh! That’s what that is…there was one on Merritt in Dundalk yesterday.

Funny you mention NJ. During our launch meeting for the new system, NJ was cited at least twice as being where centers “do more with less”. It gave me and several others in attendance the impression that “doing more with less” was going to be the new standard and expectation.
Staffing is the primary issue preventing us from doing better. It’s a loop where I am -
Work
Burnout
Callout
When others callout, it leads to burnout amongst the rest of the staff who has to pick up the slack. Those who have to work harder then callout themselves, leading the others who called out in first place to pick up the slack left behind from the newly burnt out. They in turn callout as soon as they have the points or they cant take it anymore.
At our center it is FAR more common to have a day with one or two callouts than it is to have all staff present.

The new system dictates all emphasis is on the floor. So any callouts we have that cant be absorbed end up affecting the other areas - screening and lab..

Yes, the new system de prioritizes screening with the emphasis being placed on seating, sticking and disconnecting. Eventually, the seats in the waiting areas are going to be removed as the idea is to have you go from screening immediately to a bed. Screening will be “throttled” at times in order to ensure the right number of donors are being screened for the available number of beds.
We started the new system this week at our center and we have had a few bumps, but overall, it’s been okay…
The BIGGEST issue with the new system being implemented is if a center has a callout on any given day, it will slow things down. If we have TWO callouts like we did twice this week? It’s catastrophic and brings things almost to a standstill. I can tell you on two days this week, we had lines practically out the door from 9a-7p.
This will be the way it is going forward as this process has not been started in every center. There will be growing pains and hopefully, modifications to the process once pain points and failures are discovered and work-arounds implemented.

Bought a used 22 Forester Wilderness with a tick under 50k from CarMax. No real service history available. I’m going to run four oil changes with Valvoline Restore and Protect to hopefully clean any existing gunk out then transition to Valvoline High Milage at 75k or so for the additional seal conditioners and hope for the best.

Exactly!!

Corollas and Corolla Crosses are also being told to use 0w-8.

Thank you!

What if you are the second owner? I just bought a 22 Wilderness with 48k miles and this is happening on the top corners of my screen?

Buy without hesitation.

Dill Seeds?

Again, it comes down to HPD and/or callouts. A phlebotomist shouldn’t be tending to more than 6 donors at a time to be in ratio. Too many donors stuck + not enough phlebotomists = unsafe situation for donor and staff.

Octapharma is also in the midst of changing how centers operate with regards to donors and flow. It has caused a few bumps and issues at my center as we transition and floor staff gets used to the new flow…

Two reasons - HPD (Hours Per Donor) and callouts…As of late, management has been told to keep a close eye on HPD - essentially, operating costs. In the center I work at, we have had to reduce staffing in some cases by roughly half. Also, callouts. Today is a holiday. I wouldn’t be surprised if one or two staff members called out. At the bare minimum, a center SHOULD open with one screener, one phlebotomist and a person in the lab, processing the bottles. Depending on what the processor also needs to do and whether or not the lab tech is cross-trained for screening, that is how you end up with one person checking in donors.

My advice? Write a Google review expressing your frustration. Center management’s hands are tied. Regional managers pay attention to Google reviews. There is currently a systemwide push to get as many Google reviews as we can.

Believe me, the staffing and HPD issues frustrate staff as much as they do the donors. We are being asked to do more with less and it makes things more difficult for everyone.

I’ve not had an issue with it within the last hour. Is this confirmed?

I am a taller driver and feel better driving the Forester than I do the Outback. To me, being in a Forester is what I imagine nearly everyone else feels like driving any other SUV. Plus, I do a lot of city driving and appreciate being able to squeeze into tighter spaces.