Thursday, April 30, 2020
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Mercy Iowa City Encourages Donations of Plasma
Mercy Iowa City is now participating in the Convalescent Plasma Therapy donation program sponsored by the Mayo Clinic. If you have been diagnosed with COVID-19, you have an opportunity to donate blood plasma that can help others in southeast Iowa who are acutely ill with this virus. There is a critical need for plasma donors who have recovered from COVID-19. Each unit of plasma donated can potentially save three other lives.
Please consider participating in this program through our local blood bank, Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, which supplies Mercy Iowa City and other regional hospitals with critically needed blood and plasma. You can find more information at the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center website here https://www.bloodcenter.org/hospitals/patient-services/convalescent-plasma/.
Donors must have both a confirmed diagnosis of COVID-19 from their physician and laboratory test results, must be symptom free for 28 days although can register to donate sooner, and must meet all standard eligibility criteria for blood donation.
If you meet the donation criteria, please consider participating in this program. Your plasma donation can save the lives of others who are struggling with COVID-19.
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About Mercy Iowa City: Mercy Iowa City is an acute care hospital and regional referral center that draws patients from throughout southeast Iowa. For the past four years Mercy Iowa City has been awarded the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid (CMS) 5 Star Rating as a Top 2% of all hospitals, the only hospital in Iowa to do so; is Johnson County’s only accredited Chest Pain Center with an American Heart Association Gold Plus Achievement Award for Stroke Care; received the Top 100 Community Hospitals Award in 2018 and 2019 from Becker’s Review; the Press Ganey Guardian of Excellence Award for Mercy’s Emergency Care Unit by achieving 95 percent for patient experience for eleven consecutive years; an “A” grade for patient safety from Leapfrog; and the Center of Distinction Award from Healogics for Mercy’s Wound and Vein Center. Mercy has 234 acute care beds, 25 private rooms for outpatient surgery, 26 bed nurserywith Level II Neonatal Intensive Care Unit, 24 primary and specialty care clinics, a medical staff of 250 physicians representing all major medical specialties and most sub-specialties and 1,400 employees. It was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1873 and became an affiliate of MercyOne in 2017.