August 15, 2016

Blood donors are needed during what has been declared a critical blood shortage on Long Island. John T. Mather Memorial Hospital’s annual summer blood drive will take place on Monday, Aug. 29 from 6:30 am until 6:30 pm. The blood drive is open to all community residents.

No appointment is necessary to donate blood. The blood drive will take place in the Conference Rooms 3, 4 & 5. All successful donors will receive a gift card and a treat bag as a thank you. Mather’s 5,000th donor will receive a gift basket of great gifts.

The New York Blood Center (NYBC) declared the blood emergency and is asking the public to donate blood at a nearby drive. Recent national tragedies are reminders that it is imperative for the NYBC to always have an adequately stocked blood supply to respond when communities are faced with patient traumas or other events that require life-saving blood products. Blood donations usually decrease over the summer as people go on vacation and high schools and colleges, which account for 25 percent of regional blood collection, close or on limited schedules, according to the NYBC.

John T. Mather Memorial Hospital is an accredited 248-bed, non-profit community teaching hospital dedicated to providing a wide spectrum of high quality healthcare services to Suffolk County residents, showing compassion and respect and treating each patient in the manner we would wish for our loved ones. Mather has earned the prestigious Magnet® recognition from the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), which recognizes healthcare organizations for quality patient care, nursing excellence and innovations in professional nursing practice. Mather also has received nine consecutive top “A” ratings from The Leapfrog Group for patient safety, the only New York State hospital to achieve that distinction and one of only 98 hospitals nationwide to receive an A score in each of the twice yearly rating periods. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) awarded Mather four stars – the highest of any Long Island hospital – for patient experience, safety, and timely and effective care measures based on publicly reported data from the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) Survey.