Springfield's Central Illinois Community Blood Center plans to merge July 1 with a larger independent blood center that operates in Illinois, Iowa, Missouri and southwestern Wisconsin.
Officials said Tuesday the merger with the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center in Davenport, Iowa, will help both organizations operate more efficiently and adapt to future innovations in the blood-banking industry.
"This is truly a coming together of two strong partners," Mississippi Valley chief executive David Green said at a Springfield news conference Tuesday. "In no way is this a case where one is weak and one is strong and one is 'saving' another entity."
The merger will create the 15th largest independent blood center in the country. The merged blood bank will serve 73 hospitals, including several in St. Louis, the Quad Cities, Davenport and Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Illinois hospitals already served by Mississippi Valley include those in Canton, Galesburg, Macomb, Monmouth and Morrison.
The Springfield-based blood center, which collects about 40,000 units of blood each year, will retain its name in central Illinois, and the center's donor room at 1134 S. Seventh St., will continue to operate. Mississippi Valley also will keep its name.
None of the Springfield-based center's 110 employees will be laid off, be forced to move to keep a job or see his or her pay change, Green said.
CICBC chief executive David Parsons said employees' reactions to the news have been positive.
Financially stronger
The increased financial strength of the merged organization - with combined annual revenues of $54 million - will allow for the replacement of the Springfield blood center's cramped headquarters with a remodeled or newly built facility in Springfield in about three years, Parsons said.
A site for that facility, which could cost $7 million or so, hasn't been selected, he said.
Parsons will remain with the merged organization as a division president.
Hospitals that get all of their blood from the Springfield blood center include Memorial Medical Center, St. John's Hospital and hospitals from East St. Louis to Lincoln and Hopedale.
Memorial and St. John's are CICBC's biggest customers now. But even after the merger, Memorial probably will be Mississippi Valley's largest user of blood, Green said.
Green said the merger will result in at least $1 million in annual savings, with about $600,000 of the savings connected with the fact that the Springfield center no longer will outsource infectious-disease testing of blood to a blood center in Indianapolis.
Instead, the samples will be driven from Springfield to Mississippi Valley's laboratory in Davenport.
Possible rate cuts
It's possible that the 19 hospitals currently served by CICBC might see reductions in the rates they pay for blood and blood products as a result of the merger, Green said. The Springfield center currently charges $195 per unit of packed red cells.
Parsons said it won't be more difficult to convince people in the Springfield area to donate to an organization that might ship their blood to patients in another state.
"The whole thing about Midwestern folks is they are used to giving for the community, and they define 'the community' broadly," he said.
Five members of the current CICBC board of directors will join the Mississippi Valley board, Parsons said.
Dean Olsen can be reached at 788-1543.
Central Illinois Community Blood Center
Headquarters: 1134 S. Seventh St., Springfield. (217) 866-GIVE-BLD.
Founded: 1971.
Blood collected: 40,200 units annually.
Employees: 110.
Territory: 19 Illinois counties and 19 hospitals; population of 850,000.
Finances: $12.3 million in revenues; $855,000 in revenues over expenses in 2009.
CEO: David Parsons, 61, whose compensation totaled $162,780 in 2008.
Website: www.cicbc.org
Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center
Headquarters: 5500 Lakeview Parkway, Davenport, Iowa. (800) 747-5401.
Founded: 1974.
Blood collected: 124,500 units annually.
Employees: 390.
Territory: 44 counties and 54 hospitals in Iowa, Illinois, Missouri and Wisconsin; population of 3.2 million.
Finances: $42 million in revenues in 2009; $1.6 million in revenues over expenses in 2009.
CEO: David Green, 50, whose compensation totaled $337,108 in 2008.
Website: www.bloodcenter.org.
Photo: Bonnie Bosley draws blood from donor Tia Dasher a few days before Christmas at the Central Illinois Community Blood Center. Armando L. Sanchez/The State Journal-Register
