Springfield, IL (CAPITOL CITY NOW) – To some, blood supplies at the nation’s hospitals are almost at a “crisis” stage.

As Senator Dick Durbin got a tour of one of the ImpactLife facilities in Springfield Monday, Springfield Memorial Hospital Emergency Medicine Dr. Ken Guillotte says depending on how you look at it, blood supplies and blood donations are always near a crisis situation.

“The term ‘crisis’ — or, when you hear people mentioning that there’s an acute storage of blood — it’s usually related to local events or seasonal patterns that require more blood transfusions than usual,” said Guillotte.  “It means that we’re having a hard time keeping up.  We’re not getting as much supply as we need to help out the local community.”

Guillotte says depending on what’s being used, blood, blood platelets, or plasma, all have different shelf lives.

“We’re all in this together, whatever your political persuasion,” said Durbin (D-Springfield).  “When they declare a national emergency — problems with the blood supply on the national basis — you want to stay ahead of it, and make sure locally, everybody’s doing the best they can.”

Shortages in supplies could be because of shelf life, or a lot of use.  But, shortages could be because blood centers in one area could be called on to help other areas, especially in times of tragedy.

“A couple months ago, sadly, with a mass shooting in Midland, Texas, our blood center shipped additional units of blood on their request to Midland, Texas,” said Kirby Winn, spokesperson, ImpactLife.

Winn says that’s because ImpactLife is part of what’s called the “Blood Emergency Readiness Corps.”

But, he says, priority number one is making sure Springfield’s hospitals have what they need.