Virginia Red Cross sets up new blood processing space: ‘We get the blood faster’

HENRICO, Va. (WWBT) – Inside regional headquarters for the Virginia Red Cross off Emerywood Parkway in Henrico, work is underway to process blood donations.

This work is part of a new setup by the Virginia Red Cross to cut down on the time it takes to process blood and get it to hospitals at a quicker rate.

“Everything, historically, that was collected in Virginia was routed up to Johnstown, Pennsylvania for processing, so everything we saw there was occurring in Johnstown. Now, we are streamlining the process keeping all of that blood here for our local needs and any other need across the country,” said Greg Huey, manufacturing director with the Virginia Red Cross. “The benefits really are we get the blood faster, we have fresher blood, and it stays locally so reducing transportation time getting it from point A to point B back to where it’s needed.”

Huey gave NBC12 a behind-the-scenes look at the blood processing operation once the donations come in.

“As you can see, they have to pull the units out of the boxes, inspect the units, make sure everything is accounted, do those visual inspections,” said Huey during the tour inside the blood processing space.” Once it’s received, they will do a handoff like this so that someone can then assign this to the centrifuge equipment that’s used to spin those units down.”

Once the team processes and tests the donations, the units are sent to labeling and distribution to be sent to hospitals and patients in need.

“This is where they will get those orders and then get the product packed up for the different customers, different hospitals,” said Huey inside the distribution space.

The blood processing space started out with a small amount of blood in April, ramping up to process between 400 to 650 units each day.

“We started with a small amount of blood to get everything started in April and then we ramped up so we are near full completion now,” Huey told NBC12. “We have a little bit of partnership right now where a small amount is going off, but the majority is staying here.”

Jonathan McNamara said the new setup allows the Virginia Red Cross to send out donations to their hospital partners at a quicker rate.

“We know that one trauma patient can use over 100 units of blood, so when you really boil it down to that one patient need, you understand where the blood supply is consistently in a situation where we need more donors,” he told NBC12.

McNamara also said over the last couple of months, the Virginia Red Cross has seen blood leaving facilities faster than it’s coming in and hopes more people will step up to donate blood to keep their shelves stocked for those in need.

“By showing the process to get a donation from a donor here in a chair behind me to a patient, we hope more people understand why the need is consistent and then hopefully schedule those appointments to support the Red Cross,” said McNamara. “If you’re a patient who comes into a facility and doctors and nurses feel you need blood, we want to make sure that blood is on the shelves and that requires this whole operation to make that possible.”

The Virginia Red Cross adds they must collect 10,000 blood and platelet donations each week across the country over the next month to sufficiently meet hospital need.

To learn more about the Virginia Red Cross and how you can schedule and appointment to donate blood, click here.

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