October 17, 2014
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 17, 2014
MEDIC contact:
Jim Decker
865-524-3074
ITxM contact:
Jim Fitzgerald
847-260-2610
MEDIC Regional Blood Center based in Tennessee and the Institute for Transfusion Medicine (ITxM), one of the nation’s largest blood centers, announced today an affiliation between the two nonprofit organizations that will become effective Oct. 31.
MEDIC’s Board of Directors this week approved the affiliation with the Pittsburgh-based blood center that has operations in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Virginia. The Board of Directors for ITxM approved the terms of the affiliation agreement during their annual meeting last week.
Through the affiliation, MEDIC will gain access to ITxM’s wide range of blood-related services and be part of a six-state network.
“Proactively aligning with a leader in the field will give our hospital customers enhanced transfusion medicine services,” MEDIC CEO Jim Decker said. “It also allows us to continue our mission of providing a safe, adequate and economical supply of blood products to hospitals and their patients. Our customers and donors will not experience any change in day-to-day interaction, and we expect them to benefit greatly from this new relationship.”
ITxM CEO Jim Covert said the affiliation with MEDIC gives ITxM another key geographic link to better serve customers.
“The health care landscape across the nation continues to evolve with ongoing hospital consolidation and increased need for larger-scale blood centers to serve broader regions,” Covert said. “We are taking innovative steps now to meet the blood needs of the future. We are excited about the partnership with MEDIC Regional Blood Center and the role it will play in that future.
“Working together to fulfill our common vision of industry-leading solutions that ensure the highest quality, efficiency and improved patient care will strengthen both organizations and produce a greater level of service.”
Decker said MEDIC will maintain its local board, name and nonprofit status under the affiliation.
“We will continue to meet the evolving health care needs of our hospital customers, their patients and the community in our service region of East Tennessee and Southeast Kentucky,” he said.
About ITxM
The Institute for Transfusion Medicine’s core blood center businesses and its centralized inventory management approach provides its customers with a wide range of diversified transfusion medicine services to meet the clinical needs of their patients.
Complementary service lines to ITxM’s blood centers include reference testing, coagulation diagnostics and medical services, leveraging 40 years of service experience in transfusion medicine.
ITxM provides transfusion medicine and support for its customers, supports its businesses and leads key transfusion medicine research projects such as the National Institutes of Health’s Recipient Epidemiology and Donor Evaluation (REDS) and Transfusion Medicine/Hemostasis (TMH) studies. ITxM collects nearly 375,000 units of blood annually, employs approximately 1,100 people and operates more than 43 donor centers. To learn more about ITxM please visit http://www.itxm.org.
About MEDIC Regional Blood Center
MEDIC Regional Blood Center is a nonprofit organization and the sole provider of blood and blood products for 28 regional hospitals. The center has two locations in Knoxville, Tennessee – one near downtown on Ailor Avenue, the second in Farragut on Kingston Pike – and uses its mobile collection units for on-site donations throughout its service area in East Tennessee and Southeast Kentucky. MEDIC relies tremendously on blood drives set up at companies, churches, high schools and community events, which accounts for 85 percent of the blood collected.
Established in 1958 by Dr. Carl Nelson under the sponsorship of the Knoxville Academy of Medicine, the independent blood center was supported by area physicians because they wanted a source of blood from volunteer donors, and they needed centralization of collection, testing and distribution.
MEDIC is an accredited member of the American Association of Blood Banks and a member of America’s Blood Centers. For more information, go to http://www.medicblood.org.
