Published by Kirby Winn on Monday, September 12, 2022 in News Releases
ImpactLife is joining blood centers across the U.S. in recognizing the one-year anniversary of the nation’s first emergency blood reserve. The Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC) was founded in September 2021 as a partnership by a group of blood centers who joined together to keep the blood supply stocked during emergencies when blood needs are high, such as during a mass-casualty event or natural disaster.
![BERC one-year anniversary]()
Prior to the founding of BERC, many local centers faced widespread blood shortages during COVID. By creating BERC, these blood centers helped ensure blood will always be ready and available if needed nationwide, without delays and uncertainty.
Originally made up of seven partner blood centers, in the last year BERC has grown to 33 blood centers in 41 states that have committed to reserving additional units of blood on a rotating, “on call” schedule. (ImpactLife became a member of BERC in January 2022.) During a blood center’s on-call weeks, the additional blood units are held in reserve, ready to be shipped in response if a critical-need scenario should arise within the BERC network.
“Our members are committed to helping save lives within their own communities, but we know emergencies can arise at any time and outstrip the local blood supply,” said Nelson Hellwig, CEO of the Alliance for Community Transfusion Services and Administrator of the BERC Program. “BERC provides an emergency reserve of blood units, available to be shipped at a moment’s notice. This allows our members to respond to the needs of their communities and provides essential support whenever a crisis might occur.”
BERC activations are an essential element of crisis response
Over the last 12 months, BERC activations have been called in response to shootings with multiple victims in Memphis, Tennessee (Sept. 27, 2021); Oxford, Michigan (Dec. 1, 2021); and Uvalde, Texas (May 26, 2022), and in response to widespread damage from tornadoes in Kentucky (Dec. 11, 2021). In each instance, blood units shipped by BERC members around the country helped supplement the local blood supply in the affected region. To learn more about BERC activations see www.bloodemergencyreadinesscorps.org/activations.
For additional information on the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps and its members, see www.bloodemergencyreadinesscorps.org.
About ImpactLife
ImpactLife is a not-for-profit community organization providing blood services to 124 hospitals in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Wisconsin, as well as resource sharing partners across the country. Services extend from southcentral Wisconsin to St. Louis, Missouri and from Danville, Illinois to Chariton, Iowa. (See a map of the ImpactLife service region.) ImpactLife operates 22 Donor Centers and holds approximately 5000 mobile blood drives annually to provide blood components needed for patient transfusions at hospitals throughout our region.
For more information, see www.bloodcenter.org and find us @impactlifeblood on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, Twitter, Snapchat, and YouTube.
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