Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is an independent, nonprofit blood center that gathers blood through donations and provides blood, blood components and related services. The center meets the blood and blood component needs of patients being treated in more than 170 healthcare institutions in the 26-county Texas Gulf Coast, Brazos Valley and East Texas regions. The Blood Center began operations on Jan. 1, 1975 and is headquartered in the Texas Medical Center in Houston. The Blood Center also has 17 Neighborhood Donor Centers located throughout the greater Houston area, College Station and East Texas.
To meet the needs of the area community, The Blood Center established a collection goal of 333,000 units in 2010, with more than 1,000 donations per day. In 2007, the center collected a total of 291,319 units of blood and blood components, exceeding 2006's record by more than 18,000 units. In 2009, The Blood Center collected 331,298 units, surpassing the 2009 goal by more than 11,290 units.
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is a non-profit 501(c)(3) organization and is accredited, licensed and inspected by AABB, the Food and Drug Administration as well as local and state authorities.
Commit for Life Program
In 2003, The Blood Center launched Commit for Life, which is a partnership between the community and Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center that is focused on saving lives and permanently increasing the blood supply. The Commit for Life program works to achieve this goal by partnering with individual donors who are willing to: 1) Donate once per quarter; 2) allow The Blood Center to contact them; and 3) spread the word.
Commit for Life brought a new way of doing business to The Blood Center, focusing on the lives saved every day, rather than on the act of donating blood. The Blood Center partnered with Houston-based strategic marketing firm Next Level Thinking to develop and implement the Commit for Life brand. Since its inception in 2003, Commit for Life has been a very successful program; annual collections increased 50 percent from 2003 to 2009.
Commit for Life also includes programs designed to increase participation from groups that host blood drives, blood drive volunteers and high schools.
The Commit for Life Group Program is a program for organizations that: 1) Host one blood drive per quarter; 2) schedule the donors; and 3) spread the work. Organizations that hold at least four blood drives per year are honored at The Blood Center’s annual “A Celebration of Life†luncheon and awards presentation. In 2010, approximately 850 businesses, churches, schools and other organizations were honored at this appreciation event.
The Commit for Life Volunteer Program partners with individuals who support The Blood Center through donations of their time by: 1) Volunteering 10 hours per quarter; 2) allowing The Blood Center to contact them; and 3) spreading the word.
Student-led blood drives account for approximately 20 percent of The Blood Center’s total mobile blood drives. The Blood Center offers educational and financial benefits to high schools that participate in The Power of Life, a Commit for Life program designed for high schools that: 1) Partner with Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center; 2) host a training and education program; and 3) spread the word.
Gulf Coast Marrow Donor Program
The center is an accredited donor center for the National Marrow Donor Program and has recruited more than 90,000 potential donors who can donate bone marrow or hematopoietic cells. The center is one of the leading bone-marrow donor centers in the country and is the leading center for minority recruitment according to the National Marrow Donor Program. The center's marrow donor registry has a donor base of more than 100,000 donors, and through 2007, facilitated 329 matches.
See also
- Blood bank
- Blood products
- Blood donation
References
External links
- Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center
- The Blood Center East Texas
- The Blood Center of Brazos Valley
- Commit for Life blood donation blog
