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Description
Gulf Coast Regional Blood Center, better known as "The Blood Center", was organized in late 1974 by the Harris County Medical Society in an effort to bring an effective and uniform blood donor program to the region with local medical input.The Blood Center began operations, independent of the Medical Society on January 1, 1975 and began meeting the blood and blood component needs of patients being treated in 80 hospitals in a 16-county region. Today, The Blood Center has grown to serve over 220 health care institutions in a 24-county Texas Gulf Coast region.Regional patient blood needs require that The Blood Center collect more than 273,000 units of blood and blood components from volunteer blood donors in 2006. Two hundred thousand of these units are whole blood donations which may be separated into their component parts (red blood cells, plasma and platelets) to serve the specific transfusion needs of patients. An average of three components are available from each whole blood donation. Annual usage in this region exceeds over 720,000 units of blood and blood components.