Blood program settles in

After two years of roaming Clark and Cowlitz counties in a blood-collection bus, the Southwest Washington Blood Program is setting up shop in more permanent digs, to open this week in Vancouver.

A branch of the Seattle-based Puget Sound Blood Center, the program has been a fixture in Southwest Washington for about 10 years. The center is an independent, volunteer-supported nonprofit organization providing blood and tissue services, research and education.

In Southwest Washington, the program collected 4,400 units of red blood cells and supplied about 11,000 units from around the state to hospitals in Vancouver and Longview from June 2005 to July 2006, its last full fiscal year. The extra blood was supplied by the blood center’s other collection centers, said Dave Leitch, director of donor and volunteer resources for the Southwest Washington Blood Program.

Vancouver’s new center, located at 9320 N.E. Vancouver Mall Drive, Suite 100, is the Puget Sound Blood Center’s 10th collection center statewide.

To celebrate, several events are planned.

From 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, the center will host a preview party with local business leaders and the Greater Vancouver Chamber of Commerce. The event is invitation-only.

The official grand opening starts at noon on Wednesday at the center with a ribbon cutting by Vancouver Mayor Royce Pollard. Puget Sound Blood Center President Dr. Richard B. Counts and Jeff Carrick, the program’s donor resources representative in Vancouver, will speak, followed by the first blood donation.

Refreshments will be provided, then at 2:30 p.m., Southwest Washington Medical Center President and CEO Joe Kortum, Legacy Salmon Creek Hospital Administrator Jonathan Avery and tentatively a representative of St. John Medical Center in Longview will donate blood to demonstrate that it is here to support all of the medical facilities in the area, said spokesman Tom Butterworth.

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