{"id":209223,"date":"2026-03-18T03:15:25","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:15:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209223\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T03:15:25","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:15:25","slug":"we-are-blood-announces-strategic-plan-to-expand-care","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/209223\/","title":{"rendered":"We Are Blood announces strategic plan to expand care"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\t\t\t\t\tWe Are Blood, the sole nonprofit blood center in Central Texas, announced its multiyear strategic plan Feb. 3. The \u201cEvery Drop Counts\u201d<\/a> plan focuses the blood supplier\u2019s efforts on meeting the region\u2019s growing demand for blood products through increased collection and delivery.<\/p>\n

What they do<\/p>\n

We Are Blood<\/a> supplies every hospital, clinic and emergency medical services agency performing blood transfusions across 10 counties in Central Texas with blood products. The organization\u2019s strategic plan addresses how the needs of local patients will be met through 2030.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a patient needs a blood transfusion in our community, they’re relying on We Are Blood donors who are visiting us at our donor center or mobile blood drives,\u201d said Nick Canedo, We Are Blood vice president of community engagement. \u201cOver the past decade, we have seen a significant increase in the need for our services.\u201d<\/p>\n

The overview<\/p>\n

The organization currently operates four donation centers and plans to add two more, as detailed in the \u201cEvery Drop Counts\u201d plan. A center in Kyle, located at 19037 I-35, Ste. 2, is scheduled to open this summer, and a sixth location will be developed before 2030.<\/p>\n

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Establishing new donor centers increases accessibility and convenience for community members wishing to donate blood, Canedo said. The establishment of more centers will result in an increase of platelets collected as the process is done exclusively at We Are Blood donor centers.<\/p>\n

The organization will increase the number of mobile blood collection buses in its fleet to expand opportunities for communities not located near a donation center. Mobile donations represent approximately 40%-45% of We Are Blood\u2019s collections, Canedo said.<\/p>\n

We Are Blood will establish a second processing center, where collections are tested, placed in inventory and sent out. The additional location will help prevent delays if a natural disaster or event impacts operation at the current center.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a natural disaster event affects our community, it can also affect how our overall operations take place,\u201d Canedo said. \u201cOne important measure of our strategic plan is creating disaster preparedness operations.<\/p>\n

The strategic plan outlines the launch of additional programs, including:<\/p>\n

The region\u2019s first Pediatric Stem Cell Transplant Program, in partnership with Dell Children\u2019s Medical CenterIn-house molecular testing capabilitiesNew leadership development programs and recruitment strategiesThe impact<\/p>\n

The \u201cEvery Drop Counts\u201d plan is expected to increase the speed of blood product delivery to medical partners, improve overall patient care and address local blood supply shortages, according to We Are Blood.<\/p>\n

The plan was developed utilizing feedback and insights from We Are Blood staff surveys, organizational leaders, and hospital and EMS partners.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe want to make blood donation convenient and accessible and create more opportunities than ever before,\u201d Canedo said. \u201cWe hope that what we see as a result of the growth that we’re undertaking is that more individuals find it convenient to be able to donate blood and are inspired to give.\u201d<\/p>\n

Diving deeper<\/p>\n

The organization projects a 25% increase in the demand for blood products across Central Texas by 2030. We Are Blood supplies 96% more platelets and 55% more red blood cells to local hospitals than in 2015.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe saw a need to develop a long-term plan that was going to really ensure that we’re growing our operations, growing our footprint and our ability to collect donations to be able to meet those needs as they continue to grow into the future,\u201d Canedo said.<\/p>\n

The increase in demand has been driven by population growth, developed hospitals, expanded EMS programs and new medical services, according to We Are Blood.<\/p>\n

Looking ahead<\/p>\n

We Are Blood is celebrating its 75th anniversary<\/a>. The organization will host several celebrations throughout the year to highlight its history and services.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat we need is the community members themselves because they’re the ones who actually make our mission possible,\u201d Canedo said. \u201cIt is their generosity that makes the donations happen, that makes the blood products available for those patients.\u201d\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We Are Blood, the sole nonprofit blood center in Central Texas, announced its multiyear strategic plan Feb. 3.…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":209224,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,21736,4145,11349,64392,24208,5196,584,1822,17154,82044,27,82045,48180],"class_list":["post-209223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-blood","tag-center","tag-donation","tag-donor","tag-drive","tag-expansion","tag-health","tag-hospital","tag-plan","tag-strategic","tag-texas","tag-transfusion","tag-we-are-blood"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209223\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/209224"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}