Ozkan Dogan is a busy guy. But the general manager of a Springfield Hampton Inn made arrangements for his staff to cover for him for an hour one afternoon last week so he could donate blood.
"It's quick," the 39-year-old Springfield man said as blood flowed through a plastic tube from his arm into a plastic bag at the Springfield headquarters of the Central Illinois Community Blood Center.
"You can't do anything better than this," he said, adding that he tries to give blood every two months, the maximum allowed by federal health officials.
The not-for-profit blood center loves people with Dogan's dedication, especially this time of the year. The weeks leading up to and including Christmas and New Year's Day are the slowest period for blood donations.
Donors often are too busy with family commitments, vacations and traveling to give. Many employers who host blood drives at other times are too thinly staffed to do so at the end of the year.
On top of those challenges, snow, ice and cold weather can make people reluctant to travel to a blood drive or to the center's main donor room at 1134 S. Seventh St., according to David Parsons, the center's executive director.
"It's a lot more difficult," he said. "The last thing you think about is giving blood."
At the same time, bad weather sometimes leads to car crashes, and other accidents and injuries that require blood for medical treatment, although cancer patients continue to account for the largest chunk of people who need blood.
The blood center's staff must work even harder this time of year to call donors and publicize the need for blood, Parsons said. Even with those efforts, the 800 to 900 units of life-saving blood that the center collects during an average week drop to 600 or fewer in mid- to late December.
But so far this year, the center has been able to meet the demand for blood at 19 hospitals in central and southwestern Illinois, including Springfield's St. John's Hospital and Memorial Medical Center.
In fact, it appears that the center will collect 40,000 units by the end of 2009 and satisfy all of the 19 hospitals' need for blood without having to purchase blood from other blood regions, Parsons said. This would be the first year in the past six that the center hasn't had to purchase blood from other parts of the country to make up a shortfall.
Since the center's inception in 1971, the hospitals served have never had to cancel surgeries because of blood shortages. The center, which processes donated blood and checks for infections, charges hospitals $195 for each unit.
Part of the reason for this year's success has been the center's efforts to organize blood drives in the towns served by the eight southwestern Illinois hospitals added to the blood center's list of clients in the past half-dozen years, Parsons said.
Most of those hospitals previously were served by the American Red Cross, which continues to collect blood in the Springfield area but doesn't supply blood to Springfield hospitals, and the other 17 hospitals served by the blood center.
In addition, Parsons said the demand for blood in the Springfield blood center's region dropped slightly this year - by 3 percent.
Reasons for the drop are unclear, but Parsons said doctors are performing more blood-sparing surgeries, and some patients may be postponing medical procedures as the number of them without health insurance grows.
Still, the center - with an $11 million annual budget and 110 employees - must be aggressive in recruiting new donors and encouraging established donors to give more regularly, Parsons said. About 19,000 people donated this year's 40,000 units, so the average donor gives twice a year.
To thank donors, the blood center in November began handing out free ice scrapers bearing the center's logo, phone number (866-GIVE-BLD) and Web site (www.cicbc.org).
For the past dozen years, area residents have been able to sell their plasma, a component of blood, to various companies that have operated collection sites in Springfield. But whether plasma collections have been up or down lately is unclear.
Octapharma Plasma, 917 W. Jefferson St., which ships plasma out of town to make medicines, pays people $15 to $30 per donation. People can give plasma up to twice every week. That means people can earn between $150 to $216 a month selling their plasma.
But Parsons said the blood center, which doesn't pay donors, tends to attract a different clientele - people who are solidly middle class and more educated - so he doesn't believe the for-profit plasma center has siphoned away many potential donors from the blood center.
Octapharma's staff refused to speak with The State Journal-Register, and officials from the corporate office in North Carolina said no one was available to talk with a reporter last week.
Dogan, the Hampton Inn general manager, said giving blood is rewarding.
"I feel responsible donating the blood to help someone," he said. "I'm encouraged by my company to give blood."
Stacey Splain, 48, gave blood at the center headquarters last week. Her employer, the Illinois Department of Human Services, gives employees paid time off to donate blood.
Splain, a Springfield resident, said she donates because she feels an obligation to help other people.
"I worry: 'What if they didn't have enough blood for people?'" she said.
After receiving a call from the center, Springfield resident Tia Dasher, 30, a Best Buy operations supervisor, came to the blood center after a busy day at work.
"I thought it was even more important to give around the holidays," she said.
Auburn resident Curt Diemer, 51, stopped by the blood center on his way home from a business trip to Quincy. His 19-year-old son, Matt, a college student on winter break, joined him in donating.
"It's a way to help people," said Curt Diemer, a production sales and service manager for Case IH. "I feel blessed enough that I'm healthy enough that I can do it. Someday, I may need blood in return."
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
Photo: Bonnie Bosley draws blood from donor Tia Dasher a few days before Christmas at the Central Illinois Community Blood Center. Armando L. Sanchez/The State Journal-Register
Number of units of blood collected by Central Illinois Community Blood Center
Hospitals that buy blood exclusively from the Central Illinois Community Blood Center
