The Columbus Blood Manufacturing Laboratory is one of 116 Red Cross facilities across the country that process, test and distribute approximately 6.3 million blood products each year. In 2026 alone, the Columbus laboratory handled approximately 560,000 blood products, helping ensure hospitals and patients have access to lifesaving blood when it is needed.

Maintaining an operation of this size requires reliable, specialized equipment and facilities. In 2026, nearly $3.5 million in improvements were made to the Columbus laboratory to replace aging equipment, improve efficiency and help ensure the facility can continue meeting the needs of patients and hospitals. These critical upgrades were made possible through the generosity of Red Cross donors.

The largest investment, approximately $3.15 million, replaced walk-in coolers and freezers used by the laboratory’s manufacturing and service delivery teams. The previous units were between 21 and 26 years old and had become inefficient. They were replaced with modern, properly sized units that provide more efficient and reliable storage for blood products.

The Red Cross also invested more than $218,000 to replace two outdated hematology analyzers used for quality control. The previous model was no longer supported by its manufacturer. The new analyzers provide updated technology for evaluating blood products and can perform some testing that previously required a separate device, helping streamline laboratory operations.
 

Other improvements included:

• Two new platelet incubators, an investment of approximately $63,600, to replace equipment that had reached the end of its useful life and had become increasingly expensive to repair.
• Two new sterile connecting devices used in the manufacture of cryoprecipitate, or "cryo," a blood product used to help patients whose blood is not clotting properly. The investment totaled approximately $30,900.
• New ice machines for service delivery, costing approximately $30,000. The new equipment replaced inefficient units that required increasingly costly repairs.
• New counters and workstations, an investment of approximately $15,000, to improve organization, workflow and use of space within the service delivery area.

While much of this equipment operates behind the scenes, it plays an important role in a much larger mission.

The Columbus laboratory is part of the Red Cross national blood inventory system, which allows blood collected in one community to help a patient hundreds or even thousands of miles away. When blood is urgently needed, the Red Cross can identify available blood products of the appropriate type and move them to the communities and hospitals where they are needed most.

The Red Cross also conducts extensive blood testing and research. Information gathered through blood collection and testing provides valuable insights that can support local and national public health efforts. And through management of the American Rare Donor Program, the Red Cross helps connect patients who have rare blood types with compatible blood donors.

Together, these capabilities demonstrate how an investment in a facility like the Columbus Blood Manufacturing Laboratory reaches far beyond the walls of the building. Each improvement helps strengthen the infrastructure behind the nation’s blood supply and helps ensure lifesaving blood is available for patients when and where they need it most.