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 A new 40-foot vehicle will soon bring lifesaving blood to
hundreds of patients in area hospitals, thanks to the foresight and
generosity of Springfield's two hospitals. The Central Illinois
Community Blood Center has acquired the new bloodmobile through
funding from the Memorial Medical Center Foundation and St. John's
Hospital.
"Our present mobile units have been on the road quite some time,
and for the past several months have been plagued with reliability
issues," said David Parsons, CEO of CICBC. "Patients and their
doctors must be confident that blood will be available when needed,
and mechanical failures have at times put that in doubt.
"Volunteer blood donors make up a vital component of the
excellent medical care we have in this area, and we are very
grateful to St. John's and Memorial for giving us this capability to
better reach our volunteer donors in order to maintain an adequate
blood supply for area patients."
The new bloodmobile has a great deal of flexibility and is
equipped to efficiently hold an entire blood drive within the
vehicle. It has five beds, two registration areas, two screening
rooms and two power generators.
Ordered in September, the vehicle was built by MBF Industries of
Sanford, Fla., on a Freightliner chassis. Fully equipped, the
vehicle cost nearly $250,000. Each of the two hospitals contributed
$100,000 to enable the purchase of the bloodmobile.
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Previously, CICBC had only two bloodmobiles serving the mostly
rural 19-county area of central and southwestern Illinois. One, also
funded by Springfield's hospitals, began serving the area in 1999.
This five-bed unit has logged around 85,000 miles and allowed CICBC
to collect about 50,000 units of blood. It was out of commission for
nearly a year because of a fire. A second was acquired from the
blood center in New Orleans when no longer needed following the
exodus caused by Hurricane Katrina. This three-bed unit is being
used for small blood drives. Both have presented frequent
maintenance problems that may require extended service to keep them
on the road.
The Central Illinois Community Blood Center was formed in 1971 by
Memorial Medical Center, St. John's Hospital and the Sangamon County
Medical Society and now provides blood for patients of 19 hospitals
in central and southwestern Illinois. CICBC collects more than
40,000 units of blood from volunteer donors each year at its donor
center, 1134 S. Seventh St. in Springfield, and through mobile blood
drives in the 19 counties served by receiving hospitals.
[Text from file received]
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