History

Iowa's community blood bank has been traced back to Ike Small, an Iowa grocer who began central Iowa's first blood donor referral process in 1937. Read more about Ike Small, and how he would become the first director of the Polk County Blood Donor Service.

The Blood Center of Iowa and Siouxland Community Blood Bank, two strong, Iowa-based,  501 (c) 3 not-for-profit blood centers, merged operations in April 2010 to become LifeServe Blood Center. The decision to combine operations marked a positive move forward in the centers’ ability to counter-act the rising costs of healthcare by providing hospital customers with lower blood costs and additional value-added benefits. Learn more about the timeline of important events in the history of LifeServe Blood Center. 

Today, LifeServe Blood Center collects approximately 156,000 units of blood a year and provides blood and blood products to 157 hospitals primarily in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota. On November 24th, 2022 LifeServe Blood Center began the celebration of our 75th year. See how we are celebrating and how you can join us!