ImpactLife joins nation’s first blood emergency reserve

ImpactLife has joined a first-in-the nation partnership of community blood centers to help prepare the Quad Cities region for emergencies that may lead to high demand for blood transfusions.

That partnership is with the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC) and will enable blood donors in the area to better support emergency needs across the United States.

“In the COVID-19 pandemic, blood centers have seen a greater uncertainty and scarcity in the blood supply,” said Mike Rasso, director of sales and inventory with ImpactLife. ‘“While we have worked to avoid blood shortages in our region, we know the demand for blood can spike at any time. Joining BERC gives us confidence that sources are readily available for specific situations as defined by the BERC program.”

Before BERC, blood centers facing a mass need event relied on the other blood centers to send additional units from their available inventory. This means that in an emergency, blood providers could only rely on the goodwill of fellow blood centers.  With BERC, partner blood centers will know exactly how much blood is available and where it will come from.

“Having a consistently strong and stable calendar of blood donations and blood drives is the best way to ensure ImpactLife can meet the BERC on-call schedule requirements,” said Amanda Hess, ImpactLife’s vice president of donor relations and marketing.

BERC was founded in 2021 to help blood providers meet immediate transfusion needs when faced with a large-scale emergency.

ImpactLife was formerly named the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center. It is a not-for-profit community organization providing blood services to 126 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin, as well as with resource sharing partners across the nation. Go to bloodcenter.org for more information on ImpactLife.

Get the free QCBJ email newsletter

Stay up-to-date with the people, companies and issues that impact business in the  Quad Cities area.