History

Fernwell Building in downtown Spokane, WA

• September 30, 1945 - The official opening of the Spokane Community Blood Bank takes place housed on the fifth floor of the historic Fernwell Building in downtown Spokane.
• 1948 - The growing blood bank moves to the American Legion Building on the corner of Riverside and Washington. The Group Credit Plan and the "One" Gallon Club are formed for established donors.
• 1952 - The first Mobile Donor Van is outfitted and put out on the road to collect blood in outlying areas.
• 1953 - Construction begins on the new location for the blood bank at 507 South Washington Street.
• 1956 – Name changes to the Spokane and Inland Empire Blood Bank.
• 1974 - The first “self-contained” mobile donor vehicle arrives enabling the blood bank to increase collections within the community.
• 1979 - The first Apheresis machine was available to reduce plasma volume, remove abnormal constituents, and then return the patient’s own blood in a two hour procedure.
• 1987 - The blood bank becomes one of 57 facilities participating in a national bone marrow registry established under a grant from the U.S. Navy.
• 1992 - The Spokane and Inland Empire Blood Bank changes its name to the Inland Northwest Blood Center to better reflect the organization’s expanded services and service area.
• 1998 - INBC opens its first satellite collection center in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho.
• 2002 - A community Grand Opening celebration takes place for the new 58,000 square foot Regional Headquarters facility in Spokane. INBC wins the AGORA Award for business excellence from the Spokane Chamber of Commerce in the not-for-profit category.
• 2003 - Life Saver 1, the newly designed mobile donor collection bus featuring patient, donor, and volunteer pictures on its exterior, draws the first donor.
• 2004 - INBC opens a new satellite collection center in Lewiston, Idaho in support of the Lewis-Clark Valley.
• 2005 – INBC celebrates it 60 year anniversary as your community blood provider.
• 2007 – INBC became the sole provider of blood products to three hospitals in the Palouse in April.  The remainder of 2007 saw collection in the Palouse of 1,325 units.
• 2008 – INBC moved platelet storage from seven day to five day storage due to a change in industry regulations.
• 2008 - INBC met the challenge of record breaking snowfall in December; handling a myriad of details from snow removal to the collection of blood products and staffing.
• 2008 – The additional test for PARVO was added to those being performed on each and every blood donation.
• 2008 - INBC’s Marrow Program expanded to incorporate southern Idaho the Boise area.  As a result INBC’s donor file, search and collections activities increased by 70% overnight and 14 patients received the gift of life.
• 2009 – Judi Young retired in March and passed the baton to our new President & CEO, Jeff Bryant.
• 2009 – INBC was the winner of the prestigious National Marcom Gold Award, honoring excellence in marketing and communication, for the design and implementation of our Summer T-shirt campaign and Honorable for the design and content of our Annual Report.
• 2009 – INBC launched pages on the social networking sites, Facebook and Twitter, gaining a combined following of more than 2,000 people.
• 2011 – Weekly drives began at Pullman Regional Hospital and Gritman Medical Center allowing residents of the Palouse even more opportunities to give blood.

• 2011 – INBC entered a partnership with Puget Sound Blood Center to help promote public cord blood donation at Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.
• 2012 – Launched the Hero Rewards program, offering donors and chairperson a loyalty program to claim thank you items. Also began at this time was a free total cholesterol with all donations. 
• 2012 – The end of INBC’s regional contact for the National Marrow Program. Since its involvement with the program in 1987, INBC had helped a total of 55,000 area residents join the national databases and helping to find matches for 100 patients in the Inland Northwest.