Inland Northwest Blood Center merges with larger nonprofit

Inland Northwest Blood Center, which supplies blood to 35 hospitals and other medical facilities in Eastern Washington and North Idaho, will become part of a larger, nonprofit distribution network.

INBC announced the merger with Blood Systems Inc. of Scottsdale, Arizona, on Monday. The Spokane-based blood center had been affiliated with Blood Systems for seven years, which meant the two nonprofits already worked closely together and shared some personnel, said Tesia Lingenfelter, an INBC spokeswoman.

The merger will make INBC a wholly owned subsidiary of Blood Systems, which supplies blood and other services to nearly 600 U.S. hospitals. The merger should be finalized by the end of the year. No layoffs are anticipated at INBC, which employs about 205 people, Lingenfelter said.

“The way we deliver blood isn’t going to change,” she said.

However, the merger will benefit INBC’s larger hospital accounts by decreasing the number of blood centers it works with, Lingenfelter said. Providence Health and Services, for instance, has numerous hospitals across the Northwest, she said.

Liz DeRuyter, a Providence spokeswoman in Spokane, echoed Lingenfelter’s remarks in an email. “These types of mergers often result in stronger companies,” she said. “We have been community partners with INBC for many years and look forward to continuing to serve our communities together.”

INBC began as the Spokane Community Blood Bank in 1945. The center is in the midst of a campaign to recruit more blood donors through the summer, when donations from high school and college students drop off.

Blood Systems Inc. is one of the nation’s oldest and largest nonprofit blood delivery systems, according to its website.