Blood bank opens new facility in Lakewood Ranch

Lakewood Ranch’s Jennifer Brigham sat in a reclining chair, munching on snacks, checking text messages and relaxing as if she were lounging at a pool.

It might have been a beautiful day, but she was not outside.

Brigham, who donates blood regularly, spent about two hours donating platelets at SunCoast Blood Center’s newly opened Lakewood Ranch location March 30.

“I love it,” she said of the venue. “It’s nice. Everything is so spaced out.”

The new location at 3025 Lakewood Ranch Blvd. replaces SunCoast’s former location to the north at 1731 Lakewood Ranch Blvd.

Jayne Giroux, the director of community development for SunCoast Blood Centers, said the new 25,000-square-foot space in Gateway Corporate Park opened one week early in anticipation for an increased demand for blood due to the coronavirus pandemic. The opening had been scheduled for April 7.

“Instead of taking a month to prepare, we got up and going,” Giroux said. “We wanted to have more beds available. This is double the size of the other location.”

Giroux said the larger location will allow SunCoast to double its Lakewood Ranch donor base.

“So much of our population is moving out to this area of the county,” Giroux said. “We want to build this donor center [up].”

She hopes the Lakewood Ranch location eventually will equal donations of its main donation center on Mound Street in Sarasota. It collects up to 35 units of blood per day, compared with 10 units per day previously collected at the former Lakewood Ranch location.

“I expect this will be the flagship. This will become our premier donor center,” SunCoast Blood Centers CEO Scott Bush said. “I fully expect it will be the best donor center we have.”

Giroux said SunCoast Blood Center usually gets about 65% of its blood donations from blood mobile drives, but those all have been canceled, so donations are even more important than ever.

She recommends making an appointment to ensure appropriate social distancing. Donors also are having their temperatures taken upon arriving.

SunCoast on April 3 launched a new “Concierge Home blood drive” program and is equipped with a minivan, so it can go to donor’s homes to draw blood.

Bush said the effort is a way to make blood donation more convenient for donors and also to try to encourage more blood donations.

The agency will send two phlebotomists per house to accommodate social distancing guidelines, and it is targeting O-negative, O-positive and A-negative blood — those in highest demand.

“Only 3% of the population donates blood,” he said. “That number keeps going down, so we’ve got to evolve. When I got involved [in blood banking] in 1991, it was 13%.”

Giroux said one unit of blood — about a pint — can save up to three lives. About half the blood SunCoast collects benefits cancer patients. The remainder of blood is used for surgeries, traumas or other patient needs.

For information about SunCoast Blood Centers, visit SCBB.org.