American Red Cross Blood Services

I came here to donate blood and had an interesting experience.
I really wanted to give this place 5 stars because some of their staff is friendly and professional, but there are some staff members that are a little too uptight which makes you feel a bit unwelcome.
The front desk person was friendly and so were the two women whom finally did my blood plasma donation draw.
You can do the usual blood donation or you can do what they call a «double donation» where they take twice the donation amount of blood out of you… remove the red blood cells so that they can keep it… then return the blood plasma to your body.
I opted to the the double donation because it looked interesting and it made me feel like I was doing a little extra to help someone in need.
Now, the staff members whom helped process my intake are the reason why my experience was not the best.
I told them that my doctor mentioned, in passing, that it may be a good idea to donate blood to the Red Cross. The intake woman immediately said that I was not allow to donate blood because it would be for a medical purpose and that is a different type of situation.
After telling her several times that my blood donation is not for medical purposes… that my doctor did not write me a prescription to get my blood drawn… I was there to donate for non-​medical reasons; this intake nurse insisted that I was there to make a medically required blood donation.
I even called my doctor on the phone (while at the Red Cross Blood Services Center) and he explained that this is not a medical necessity nor is the blood draw for medical purposes, but the intake nurse insisted that she speak to her supervisor to get approval for me to donate blood.
As you would expect, the manager approved me for blood donation because there was no reason to not let me donate. I was then transferred to a blood drawing technician whom worked together with another lady to draw my blood (these two ladies were very nice).
If I was not in such a good mood that day, I would have walked out of this place and donated my blood somewhere else.

Very professional and efficient office doing great work.
For anyone in the OC who wants to donate this is the place.

Love is in the air and also in our bloodstream. With Valentine’s Day around the corner, I wanted to share some of myself with others who need my love more than ever. Love can come in a form of a hug, a kiss, or in this case, a needle from my body to a bag. My cells are your cells and we donate to the popular, American Red Cross in Santa Ana.
Located to the north of Fourth St and Golden Circle Drive in a office complex area, you will find American Red Cross. You will see the signage with the many various vehicles American Red Cross has for their drives and emergencies. I have a big history with Red Cross spanning from Los Angeles to Georgia. With Red Cross being one of the most historic logos, you know you can get help.
I won’t pick favorites on who has a better donation process or location, but rather promote that we all have to help in some form. Money is one way, but sometimes people need more help by donating blood, volunteering, and become CPR certified. I’ve donated to children and I’ve helped many people who I will never get to see. The most important part of all this is: You feel good at the end of the day. I mean, you get a little pinch from the needle, but a little pain means a great reward.
The donation process is very simple. You can schedule your donation online or call this or many other American Red Cross Centers. At the Santa Ana Office, Peter is the guy in charge of scheduling and many other functions of this facility. Since my schedule is so hectic, I did mine online and on the same day. You can fill you pre-​interview questions online or when you visit. Christy is an amazing nurse who took care of me on my first visit. I am used to going to Woodland Hills and being taken care of by Marissa and Susanna. Just saying Hi!
The whole blood/​apheresis donation is very simple. Its the needle part that wants to be part of you that can take awhile. Whole Blood process can take about 15 – 20 minutes. Apheresis can take about 2 hours because of its complex process. The staff makes it easy on you by chatting with you and having time fly by. If you are you are donating platelets or double red cells, you can watch a movie for the LONG, but rewarding process.
At the end of the donation, you can sit down, Grab some snacks, drinks, and chat with other Red Cross donors who have a lot to share. Just keep eating because you’ll be DRAINED. Of course, Peter wants to see who else can schedule their appointment. Donating blood, cells, and platelets is an ultimate sacrifice because you are doing the right thing. It doesn’t have to be money, but when they say give a little piece of yourself, they mean give your body and soul too. If you are afraid of needles… Well, I was too! At the end of the day, a piece of you is inside someone and they’ll start sharing a little of your characteristics. I wonder if they are technically Unilocalers now since my blood is in them?!
Unilocal…My passion is not to write my reviews, but to share my experiences with you. Take that journey and share your story.

Absolutely love this place. I like that staff is professional and proficient, also appreciate how helpful they are. Last night, I went in without an appointment and they attended me pretty quickly. Meanwhile when I was waiting, there was an older gentleman sitting in the waiting room. I thought he was waiting for someone but I realized that he goes there once in a while to have the receptionist help him with his circulation socks. It was just so nice to see that. Never had a a bad experience here.

No matter if you have an appt or if there’s not even anyone there you ALWAYS have to wait :(that’s my only complaint.

It was once said…“In order to understand human or moral goodness, the individual must first recognize what it means to be good and do good deeds.”
I’ve donated blood a few times at blood drives through work, but I decided to become a steady platelets donor about a year and half ago after donating blood for the first time at this location. The nurse advised since my blood type was AB+, I could be a universal donor regardless of blood type, but more importantly my platelets would be most valuable as it would help save lives for cancer patients. With that said… sign me up!
The platelets donation process takes about 2+ hours, but goes by pretty fast because you’re able to watch a movie of your choice during the procedure. Here are some tips and information on the process
Tips!
— Make an appointment
— Eat a full meal on the day of donation
— Drinks a whole lotta water
— No Aspirin 48/​hrs before the donation
Donation Process
— Sign in at the front desk
— Read Blood donation pamphlet
— Questionnaire and vitals with nurse (checks iron levels and blood pressure)
— Pick your DVD movie you want to watch during the procedure. (My favorite part! Its like Redbox at the Red Cross) personal TV monitor above your donation bed with head phones
— Platelet donation (procedure is as follows: Needle in both arms. On one arm blood is drained and processed through a machine that extracts your platelets. After extraction, your blood will processed back through the other arm. Once the platelets bag is full, the donation process is complete.
— Head to canteen area for snacks and juices as the blood/​platelets donation might make you feel weak afterwards.
The staff/​nurses are always friendly and go above and beyond to make your donation experience as pleasant as possible. I believe we can all make a difference, so if your not afraid of needles and have some free time on your hands… make a donation to your local Red Cross donation center!

You will never meet the people who receive your donation but in a way that makes it even better. Make an appointment and save a life!

I give blood on a regular basis and this was the worst experience I’ve ever had! They are totally inefficient so even though no one is there, you still end up waiting. The lady that did mine was so inexperienced that she didn’t get my vein the first time and had to wiggle it to get it right. This was soooo painful I had to stop her.
Dear Res Cross– This location needs more training.

Interesting. You’re doing g them a flipping favor and 50% of them are not nice, friendly or give a rats ass.
Do research and see how much money they make on your donated blood. A little bit of appreciation and courtesy would be nice in return.
My donated blood is boiling…

Since I was in college I’ve always tried to donate blood a few times a year, this place is close enough to donate where I don’t feel unsafe driving myself back home after having donated blood. There are several warnings you should be aware of, nothing really unsafe but there are problems with how things are organized. I also recommend that if you do decide to donate that it’s much quicker to schedule an appointment before even going to this location.
First of all, when you get here and sign your name, read through some typical binder, it’s usually a bunch of high school kids who are in charge of even getting you in the front door of the building. Sometimes it’s more professional, but most of the time when it’s children it can get frustrating because a few of them seem to like barking orders at adults just because they’re in that position. This didn’t happen to me, but I have spoken up for the other people who were treated poorly.
When you finally get in, go through the entire process of questions on a computer it takes forever before they even search for a vein. When they finally show up, have you lay down, scan all the bar codes and put stickers on everything it’s the inevitable moment when you find out if the person has any experience. This is a crucial time to pay attention, a few times the person had to have someone else insert the needle for them after not doing it right on one arm, and it upset me because this only ever happened to me at this location.
I’m not going to complain about the snacks and drinks, which the workers usually leave them in the packages, but I don’t like this place for several other reasons. The majority of the staff is questionable, it takes way too long for simple tasks, some of the workers are simply too slow and some don’t have the experience to be there in the first place. This gets much worse during the times they have promotional events because several people show up and it takes even longer to donate blood.
I’m aware they have protocol, there are rules made for various reasons and I won’t argue with most of them. There are several people who don’t like needles or the sight of blood, so it’s best to remain calm, and it’s expected for most people to feel some form of fatigue after donating. With that being said, sometimes people have a lot on their minds and tend to forget things, sometimes it’s their personal property.
There are several times where I’ve seen the workers being rude, the main being when someone got up after just donating and sat near the snack and drink area. He had left his phone in the area he donated blood, I didn’t see it as a problem as he just walked away from there and could see his phone as a lady began yelling at him to stay away from the area. He had the red tape on his arm and everything, she made a huge scene before one of the staff members showed up and retrieved his phone for him.
There is also another huge problem, they put you on a list for the Red Cross’ call center, which I originally thought it was only for this location to have your phone number for appointments or emergency reasons. When they get your number there’s no turning back, they never take your number off the DO NOT CALL list, which I have requested over the last 2 years for them to do. They call all hours of the morning till the evening if you haven’t donated blood to them within the last couple months, and you know it’s them because there’s a delay when you answer the phone.
I no longer donate to this location, we all get blinded by feeling that we’re helping out and donating blood, but as I’ve donated frequently over the last decade I’ve found out that there are much better locations out there. I still get the annoying calls all the time, so if you don’t want that to have this happen to you make sure you don’t give them your phone number. I’m aware that the Red Cross provides a great service, but because of those few people who are rude and obviously not qualified to do their job I recommend going to a different location.

They came to my school for us students to donate. Turned half of us away bc «they don’t feel comfortable with my veins». THERE WAS ONLY 1 or 2 ACTUAL PHLEBOTOMIST, the rest of the people taking blood were MA’s… Lol that’s why they didn’t feel comfortable bc they aren’t certified ! Then when I say (in a nice way) «Lifestream got blood 3 months ago and when I was in highschool I gave blood». They got all attitude with me and then were COMPLETELY rude… I will never donate through Red Cross again. Life Stream OBVIOUSLY hires Phlebotomists. Lesson learned.

5 out of 5 really, not much to say. The staff is helpful and always cheery, I am able to be seen pretty much right after I show up, and I am helping out people who need it. If you are brave enough to give blood, feel free to stop by this location and donate today.

The staff made the donating blood a very pleasant experience. The previous time I donated blood at a different location, I felt that the needle wasn’t in correctly because it hurt and took a really long time to finish donating. At the Red Cross, the whole process took less than an hour. I was greeted warmly by Peter, and the ladies who asked me questions and got me ready to donate blood were really nice. The donation only took about ten minutes. I was pretty happy about that! It wasn’t painful at all. I will definitely be coming back to donate blood regularly.

I stopped donating whole blood a couple years ago and started donating platelets instead. Since I have type B blood, they encouraged me to donate platelets.
Since I moved to Santa Ana a couple years ago, Peter has been working the front desk area. I believe he was a volunteer in 2011, and he’s now their recruiter. From my experience, he has been really nice to me. He encourages me to come back in. He’ll work with me to figure out dates in the future to come back to keep the platelets donations coming in.
The process in the beginning is similar to whole blood. You have to read the materials. Then you are interviewed to see if you qualify.
The timing of actual donation is about 2 hours. Platelet donations are done with either 1 or 2 arms. I believe the 2 arms method is 20 minutes faster than the single arm method. They have a wide selection of movies (mostly current releases) available to watch during the donation process. Since I’m in school right now, I sometimes donate with 1 arm so I can read my textbooks for class. Nothing is better than sitting in a chair to two hours to get some work done. For some reason, you get cold during the process, and they put blankets on you. You can ask for additional blankets or heating pads.
Once donation is completed, you spend about 15 minutes having juice and snacks before you head out. The entire process can be 2.5 to 3 hours long. You can donate platelets once every two weeks if you are gun-​ho about it.
Easy way to volunteer folks. Plus you get a movie and cookies.

I get nervous over needles, which is why it took me so long to donate in the first place. However, I wanted to know my blood type, so I finally broke down and donated at the beginning of March. My experience was so pleasant that I ended up donating platelets yesterday. The nurses are super nice and coddle you… and you get to watch a movie while donating platelets. Plus you get a heating pad, and as many blankets as you need. I can’t wait to be able to donate again!

This is a nice facility and the staff make donating an easy and pleasant experience, starting with Peter, who makes the appointments. The nurses are excellent and personable. I donate platelets, which takes an hour or two, but it’s not bad because I read or watch a movie. Actually, it’s a good chance to relax!

I just went to donate blood this past weekend and it has been 10 years since I last gave blood. I was pretty excited and enthusiastic about it but now I regret I did because of the experience and damage I show on my arm. I am currently experiencing severe internal bleeding in my arm caused by the nurse that didn’t know how to find my vein.
Here is what happened:
Everything seemed okay when I got in, I had to read a thin booklet on precautions and a list of conditions that may disqualify a potential donor. I was then escorted to a small room by one guy and pricked on the finger to get a small sample of blood. After a couple questions to enter into a database, I was asked to take 40 questions on a computer to provide details so they know if I’m eligible to donate.
Once that is done, I was escorted to the reclining chairs where the donors sit. This is when this went awry. The nurse I had was supposed to tell me some instructions, but she was mumbling her words and she wasn’t clear on her questions. I had to ask her to repeat what she asked.
My arm was then taped up and the nurse injected the needle, she didn’t even give a thorough inspection to see if she saw my vein, she just stuck in the needle. She put the needle in about an inch, then waited… then went «hmmmm»…and went in another half inch, at this point, I’m thinking… thats pretty deep. Then she pauses, and pulls out the needle about half an inch and changes directions.
After about 4 tries of this, the guy who did the background check came out to help, he found it in 3 seconds! Apparently he signed his name as the person to draw my blood and after I was done, the lady is complaining like crazy after because she noticed this guy wrote his name on my blood pouch. She’s complaining to some other nurse and says deserved the credit and tries to get me to side with her after I lose a pint of blood. She asked me something like «Do you think that is right?». The lack of courtesy from the nurse astounds me. First, she doesn’t apologize for not finding my vein, then she asks me questions to get me to side with her, and last, she doesn’t say anything nice or reassuring. Very discouraging experience.
Other than the fact I’m helping someone I can not put a face or a name to, I’m wondering how this experience could be seen to encourage me to donate blood again in the future?