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Next time you give blood at the Community Blood Center of the Ozarks, you’ll have a choice of two locations. KSMU’s Michele Skalicky has more.
The sound of falling water greets you as you enter the new Community Blood Center of the Ozarks’ new donor center. A waterfall feature designed to reflect the Ozarks graces the lobby of the building at Campbell and Plainview Road.The new facility is nearly double the space of the CBCO donor center at Glenstone and Seminole. CBCO spokesman Chris Pilgrim explains why a new donor center was needed.
"Well, simply because of growth. In 1996, we had about 34,000 units of blood I think that was donated that first year. In the last year, in 2008, we've grown to over 90,000 units, in fact, over 100,000 units of blood when you count platelets and the aperesis products and things like that, so we were literally bursting out of our old location, and this new location will serve us well well into the future."
Pilgrim says the new donor center should adequately serve are hospitals for at least 30 years. The new building offers a much larger donor area, more truck bays, a large meeting room and bigger lab facilities. Pilgrim says they’re mandated to do even more testing now to ensure the safety of the blood supply.
"Some of the testing methods that are used now weren't around in 1996 whenever we opened up that location on Glenstone. We now do testing for blood-borne diseases that get down to the genetic level, nucleic acid testing andallow us to detect disease much earlier than we previously could."
The land and building, which used to be Summerfresh Supermarket, cost the CBCO 4.5 million dollars. Renovations and infrastructure improvements total 5 million. The CBCO leases the building at Seminole and Glenstone.The new facility is a bit of a drive for some, but the old location--at Seminole and Glenstone—will remain open.
"It's our hopes also to eventually expand and offer a northside location. We hope to do that in the next year or two, but, yeah, the Glenstone facility will remain open. We're going to undergo a little renovation there, and, of course, Springfield now has two great donor center opportunities, and we hope to serve the community north, south and central."
Hours at both facilities are Monday and Friday 8 to 3 and Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 11 to 6. The new center is open every Saturday from 7 to 2 and the old center is open the first Saturday of each month from 7 to 2.Grand Opening events at the new donor center are planned for tomorrow (2/5). A ribbon cutting and dedication of the new headquarters will begin at 8:45 and a special blood drive will be held from 8:30 to 6. Donors will receive an ice scraper with a snow brush. Open house tours will be given throughout the day. For more information, call 227-5000 or go to cbco.org.
