(formerly Irwin Memorial Blood Center and Peninsula Blood Bank)
Contact: Lisa Bloch
Phone: 415-749-6612
Blood Centers of the Pacific (BCP) is a community-based nonprofit organization that provides blood and blood components to 40 hospitals throughout Northern California and conducts medical research to improve blood safety and patient care.
BCP was created with the merger of the Irwin Memorial Blood Center, the nation’s first community-sponsored blood center founded in 1941 – and the Peninsula Blood Bank, created in 1942. In 1999, BCP affiliated with Blood Systems, Inc., the nation’s second largest nonprofit blood collection organization.
BCP collects blood and blood components – such as platelets and plasma – from volunteer donors throughout Northern California at its 12 donation sites and through its blood drives held at area businesses, places of worship and schools. The blood is collected, tested and then sent to area hospitals for transfusion into patients. BCP distributes more than 130,000 pints of blood each year to patients in need.
The Blood Systems Research Institute (BSRI), housed at Blood Centers of the Pacific, uses state-of-the-art technology to conduct research on transfusion safety and patient care. The department is internationally-acclaimed and its researchers work in tandem with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institutes of Health and the University of California at San Francisco on many ground-breaking projects. For more information, visit www.bsrisf.org.
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