116 3rd St SE
Cedar Rapids, Iowa 52401
Cedar Rapids regional blood center planning move
CEDAR RAPIDS - The Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center will be moving next spring to a larger location in southwest Cedar Rapids.
The Davenport-based provider of blood products and services to 88 hospitals will move from 3,000 square feet of leased space in Williams Plaza, 3235 Williams Blvd SW, to a 6,000-square-foot building under construction nearby at 3001 Williams Blvd. SW.
Kirby Winn, MVRBC spokesman, said the larger location is needed to provide additional space for three operating units housed in the facility.
'The one that is most obvious is actual blood donation,” Winn said. 'A person makes an appointment, they come in and get screened, and then they go to the donor chair to give blood or platelets.
'The second group of employees who work there are recruiters who go out in the community and identify groups that will host mobile blood drives. Our donor relations consultants are a little on top of each other and really need more space.
'The third group of employees are the crews that work the mobile blood drives. They load up a van and set up the beds at the mobile blood drive site.”
Winn said the regional blood center's east side location at 4828 First Ave. NE in Cedar Rapids near Lindale Mall is larger than the west side office, but blood donor schedules typically are full at both locations.
'If the west side location was not performing very well, it would be tough to justify a new investment and commitment for that operation,” he said. 'We hope to always add to the schedule of mobile blood drives and we would need additional space for staff to operate those drives.”
Winn said MVRBC expects to move into the new building in May or June of 2016.
'The building will need to pass all the inspections required by the city as well as meet all of our regulatory requirements,” he said.
The regional blood center, which serves hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin, will lease the new building from Bill Lane, owner of Bill Lane Construction in Cedar Rapids.
MVRBC's testing, processing and primary distribution center in Davenport handles more than 250,000 units of blood components each year.
Angie Maranda, component lab technician, scans the barcode on a pack of red blood cells after separating the plasma at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center in Davenport. The organization is planning to move its operations in southwest Cedar Rapids to a new larger facility under construction at 3001 Williams Blvd. SW. (Stephen Mally/The Gazette)
Erica Burnett, charge staff, scans in a donation after transporting it to the lab at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center in Davenport. The provider of blood products to 88 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin needs more space for donations as well as blood drive recruiting and set-up staff. (Stephen Mally/The Gazette)
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