Serving Hospitals and Patients
The American Red Cross has served patients who need blood in the Greater Delaware Valley since World War ll. In 1994 the Red Cross dedicated Musser Blood Center, a state-of-the-art facility which houses:

• The blood supply for more than 100 New Jersey and southeastern Pennsylvania hospitals;
• The Philadelphia National Testing Laboratory, which provides infectious disease and type-testing of blood donations for four Red Cross blood centers and three non-Red Cross blood centers;
• The National Reference Laboratory for Blood Group Serology serving more than 3,000 hospitals nationwide.

Hospitals and patients in southeastern Pennsylvania and New Jersey benefit from an array of transfusion support services including:

• Lifesaving blood products delivered 24 hours a day, 365 days a year;
• Physicians and technical experts available for consultation around the clock;
• Products to meet special patient needs such as Granulocytes (infection fighting white cells) and HLA-matched platelets;
• Self-donation for planned surgery;
• Intra-operative autologous transfusion, a transfusion option benefiting orthopedic and other surgical patients;
• Reference laboratories that identify and locate compatible units of Platelets and Red Blood Cells for patients;
• The American Rare Donor Registry, a joint American Association of Blood Banks and Red Cross program that assists patients who need rare blood across the country and world;
• Stem cell and therapeutic apheresis services to help patients with cancer and other diseases;
• Research into evolving cellular therapies to help cancer patients;
• National Marrow Donor Program participant helping cancer and other patients through donor recruitment and education.

State of the Blood Supply in the Greater Delaware Valley and New Jersey
As one of 35 American Red Cross blood regions, the Penn-Jersey Region provides nearly all of the blood needed in the Greater Delaware Valley, and in central and southern New Jersey. Additionally, thousands of blood products are provided to hospitals in Northern New Jersey from this blood center.

For the past several years, the need for blood across the nation has grown faster than donations have grown, creating periodic shortages that can and do affect patient care. We believe that no patient should have to wait for care because blood is not available for him or her.

This trend has acutely affected the Greater Delaware Valley. A major medical center, Philadelphia is home to many teaching hospitals that provide advanced medical care such as organ transplants, specialized pediatric and neonatal care, cancer and cardiac care. Blood is a perishable resource; the need is continuous.

In response to the growing need for blood, the Red Cross increased blood donations locally by nearly ten percent last year. Still, blood donations given locally only meet 70 percent of our true need. Donations made in other Red Cross blood centers make up the balance.

A strength of the Red Cross Blood Services is the ability to ship blood from communities where there is an excess to those where there is a need, assuring that blood donations are never wasted. But the need for lifesaving blood donations will continue to grow as the population ages and the Red Cross must continue to grow accordingly.

To meet our responsibility to the people we serve, the Region has plans to work with business and community groups to increase blood donations in the Greater Delaware Valley and New Jersey by 100,000 over the next three years.

This presents a significant challenge — only five percent of those who might be eligible to donate blood actually do. Most donors rarely give more than once a year. But we believe that when people know they are needed, they will respond.