In 2008, The Blood Center of Brazos Valley began work settling into a permanent home in the Bryan/College Station area to better serve the Brazos Valley community. As the primary blood supplier to nine Brazos Valley counties – Brazos, Burleson, Fayette, Grimes, Leon, Madison, Robertson, Walker and Washington – The Blood Center for years has provided blood products through operations out of Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, which serves more than 170 hospitals and health care facilities in a 25-county region of Texas.

Jan. 10, 2008 marked the inauguration of The Blood Center of Brazos Valley’s mobile operations in the area, as local churches, businesses and organizations began holding blood drives on a regular basis.  The Blood Center has partnered with the community to schedule drives, to increase collections and to enhance the donor experience with a new state-of-the-art donor coach. Hospitals in Brenham, Bryan, College Station and neighboring communities needed approximately 10,000 units of blood in 2007, so the expansion comes at perfect time as the area hospitals and community grow.

As a local affiliate, The Blood Center of Brazos Valley grants more convenient donation opportunities and easier access for the hospitals it serves. A Neighborhood Donor Center will open on Rock Prairie Road in College Station by early 2009, giving donors a fixed location where they can help save lives.

“Our hospital made significant developments in 2007 by making notable advancements in our cardiovascular and neonatal ICU programs,” said Thomas Jackson, chief executive officer for the College Station Medical Center. “Without the blood we receive from The Blood Center, these life-saving procedures wouldn’t be possible.” 

St. Joseph Health System’s Chief Executive Officer, Jack Buckley, Jr., echoes Jackson’s sentiments by saying, “Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center is our primary provider for blood products. The blood donations from our community are essential to our specialized surgical programs and very much support our Accredited Chest Pain Center.  Even if a patient doesn’t need blood during the surgery, it still must be available should the need arise.  Now with the opening of The Blood Center of Brazos Valley, blood products will be immediately available in our community, from our community.”

The Blood Center is a non-profit 501 (c) (3) organization and is accredited, licensed and inspected by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), Medicare, AABB as well as local and state authorities.