The Morrisville Chamber of Commerce is proud to announce a ribbon cutting ceremony for The Blood Connection’s new North Carolina Operations Center. The ceremony will take place at 11:00 A.M. on Thursday, January 30th at 101 Kitty Hawk Drive in Morrisville, N.C.

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The Blood Connection North Carolina Operations Center in Morrisville opens on January 30, 2020. The center will help provide local hospitals in Eastern North Carolina with life-saving products more efficiently. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Blood Connection North Carolina Operations Center in Morrisville opens on January 30, 2020. The center will help provide local hospitals in Eastern North Carolina with life-saving products more efficiently. (Photo: Business Wire)

The Blood Connection (TBC) operations center will serve three main functions to provide local hospitals in Eastern North Carolina with life-saving products more efficiently. The first function, a reference lab, allows TBC to ensure quicker turnaround times on hospital orders requiring blood products for high risk patients. The second, hospital services, helps TBC deliver better service to hospital partners by making quick modifications and processing orders faster. Lastly, the mobile staging and warehouse supports TBC’s efforts to maintain a steady blood supply.

Mobile units and other equipment used for blood drives are also housed at the N.C. Operations Center. Currently, TBC relies solely on its processing lab in Piedmont, S.C. The implementation of the laboratory in Morrisville will ultimately allow local patients to get the products they need even faster, which in life-threatening instances can make a big difference.

“We are excited to be expanding our reach yet again in the Triangle,” said Delisa K. English, President and CEO of The Blood Connection. “Having a full operations center local to the area will allow us to process blood products and get them to patients even faster, transferring to more lives saved.”

TBC is a non-profit community blood center that opened its first permanent location in Raleigh in 2018. The organization is the exclusive provider of blood products for nearly 30 hospitals and healthcare systems in the Triangle and Eastern N.C. – including UNC REX Healthcare and WakeMed. In the past year alone, donations have been used to help more than 13,000 patients in need of blood products during their hospital stays in Wake County.

“We couldn’t be happier to have The Blood Connection as a member of the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce,” 2020 Chamber Chair Rod Frankel, of Frankel Staffing Partners. “We welcome them to the business community here in Morrisville and look forward to their continued success.”

The processing center will not be open to the public, however, tours can be arranged for community members who are interested in learning more. In addition to mobile drives in the area, TBC also has a donation center located off of Glenwood Avenue. Donors can visit 7 days a week at 5925 Glenwood Avenue. To learn more about TBC or to schedule a donation, please visit: www.thebloodconnection.org.

The Operations Center grand opening falls in the same week as WakeMed’s TBC blood drives:

  • Monday, January 27th
    • WakeMed Raleigh Main Campus inside Andrews Center – 3000 New Bern Ave: 7:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
    • WakeMed Cary Campus – 1900 Kildaire Farm Rd: 10:00 a.m. – 3:00 p.m.
  • Tuesday, January 28th
    • WakeMed Business Center – 2920 Highwoods Blvd: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
    • WakeMed Operations Center – 3261 Atlantic Avenue: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
  • Wednesday, January 29th
    • WakeMed Apex Healthplex – 120 Healthplex Way: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
    • WakeMed Briar Creek Healthplex – 8001 TW Alexander Dr: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
  • Thursday, January 30th
    • WakeMed North Campus – 10000 Falls of Neuse Rd: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.
    • WakeMed Garner Healthplex – 400 US-70: 10:00 a.m. – 2:00 p.m.

About The Blood Connection

The Blood Connection has been committed to saving lives since 1962. Founded in Greenville, South Carolina, TBC is an independently managed, not-for-profit, community blood center that provides blood products to more than 70 hospitals within Georgia, South Carolina, and North Carolina.

Recognized by the U.S. Congress for its dedication to disaster preparedness and the community, TBC works diligently to collect blood from volunteer donors to meet the ever-increasing demand. By keeping collections local, TBC serves hundreds of thousands of patients a year in its communities. TBC is licensed and regulated by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. For more information, visit thebloodconnection.org.

About the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce

Founded in 1990, the Morrisville Chamber of Commerce is a membership-based organization that works to foster business growth and bring new business and development into Morrisville.