The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas, Coastal Bend Blood Center, Carter BloodCare, and The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center form ACTS
AUSTIN/ CORPUS CHRISTI/ DALLAS FORT WORTH/ SAN ANTONIO, Texas (Dec. 15, 2010) –
Against a background of dynamic change in the health care industry that emphasizes increasing access to medical and surgical treatments while reducing costs, the community independent blood centers in Austin, Corpus Christi, Dallas Fort Worth, and San Antonio have undertaken a collaborative approach as the Alliance for Community Transfusion Services (ACTS).
Many advances in medicine and surgery have resulted in an increasing number of hospital patients needing transfusion. At the same time these numbers have increased, so too has the level of sophistication required to meet the service needs. This is particularly true for oncology patients, transplant recipients, and those needing long-term transfusion support for conditions such as sickle cell disease.
Members of ACTS believe that strong relationships between community blood programs and local hospitals ensure the best for patients. This is especially true when emergencies, be they for individuals or a community at large, need to be met.
ACTS-member blood programs understand that excellent service must also be cost-effective. Collectively, by sharing the knowledge they have gained serving their community donors and hospitals for the last five decades, the blood centers are well-positioned to ensure continued support that promotes efficiency, quality, cost containment, and consistency of supply without sacrificing local customer service. In particular, members have committed to using their combined volumes of approximately 700,000 annual blood collections and 3,000 employees to leverage greater economies-of-scale for the benefit of their respective communities.
The ACTS group is currently in discussions with other community blood programs and therefore may be adding members by early 2011.
About The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas (Austin) – The Blood and Tissue Center of Central Texas is a 501(c) (3) not-for-profit organization providing lifesaving blood services and allograft tissue to 37 medical facilities in a 10 county service area of Central Texas. The Center is licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration, accredited by the AABB and American Association of Tissue Banks, and is a member of America’s Blood Centers.
About Coastal Bend Blood Center (Corpus Christi) – Coastal Bend Blood Center, a not-for-profit 501(c) (3) organization, established in 1969, provides lifesaving blood for patients throughout the Coastal Bend and serves 13 hospitals and surgical centers in a 10 county area. The Coastal Bend Blood Center is licensed by the Food and Drug Administration, accredited by the AABB, certified by the EU (European Union), and is a member of America’s Blood Centers.
About Carter BloodCare (Dallas Fort Worth) – Carter BloodCare’s volunteer donors provide lifesaving blood for patients at over 200 health care facilities in 56 counties in North, Central and East Texas. Carter BloodCare is the largest not-for-profit 501(c) (3) community blood center in Texas and is accredited by the AABB, licensed by the Food and Drug Administration and is a member of America’s Blood Centers.
About The South Texas Blood and Tissue Center (San Antonio) – STBTC is a unique not-for-profit community blood center that saves lives by working with volunteer donors to provide high quality blood, blood components, cord blood, tissue services, and specialized testing. Our service area consists of 100 healthcare facilities in 43 South Texas counties. The first ISO certified donor center in North America, STBTC is accredited by the AABB, licensed by the Food and Drug Administration and is a member of America’s Blood Centers.