BERC Expands to 30 Blood Centers

The Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC) now includes 30 community blood centers and a majority of the nation’s blood operators, program officials announced this week. A group of seven blood centers founded the program in September 2021 to support emergency response efforts. Since then, BERC has grown to include centers in 37 states and activated following mass casualty events and natural disasters. 

BERC member centers commit to collecting extra red blood cell units on a rotating “on-call” schedule so that an emergency reserve of blood is available for critical-need scenarios. If no emergency arises, the blood products are returned to the collecting center’s general inventory.

“Growing to 30 blood centers is a significant milestone,” said Nelson Hellwig, CEO of the Alliance for Community Transfusion Services (ACTS) and administrator of the BERC program. “We never know when these events will occur, and with what frequency, but we do know that the blood on the shelves at a center is what would be used in an emergency. With partner blood centers now blanketing the U.S., BERC is well positioned to be the team of first responders for blood products in critical times of need.”