FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Puget Sound Blood Center Names Mimi Vaughan Director, Transfusion Services Lab

JUNE 30, 2006, SEATTLE WA — Puget Sound Blood Center recently named Mimi Vaughan as director of the Blood Center’s Transfusion Services Laboratory.  In her new role as director of the world’s largest centralized transfusion service laboratory, Vaughan oversees several facets of the Blood Center’s services to King County and Western Washington hospitals and medical centers.

Puget Sound Blood Center is the largest volunteer organization in Washington State and supplies blood to over 70 hospitals and outpatient clinics in 14 counties in Western Washington.   The Blood Center’s Transfusion Services Lab serves 15 major medical centers in King County and meets the needs of patients needing blood transfusions at every one of these facilities.  The service include performing 500,000 compatibility procedures (to match donated blood with patients who need a transfusion), preparing and delivering over 45,000 whole blood platelets (platelets cause blood to clot), 13,000 apheresis platelets (apheresis is a special donating process that allows donors to donate only platelets), 50,000 fresh frozen plasma (plasma is the liquid in which red cells, white cells and platelets travel), 1,000 cryoprecipitate pools (containing proteins to stop bleeding) and 200 granulocytes (white cells, which fight infection) annually. 

The Blood Center has one of the few centralized transfusion service labs in the nation, providing a stable blood supply through sophisticated inventory management.  Services required prior to patient transfusions may include blood compatibility testing and preparation.  For patients with difficult bleeding, our red cell reference lab may perform specialized tests to help diagnose the cause.  Blood Center physicians, who are experts in transfusion and transplantation medicine, consult with medical staff at the hospitals performing transfusions. 

Vaughan was drawn to the Blood Center by its centralized transfusion service and reputation for innovation and research.  “It is an honor to be part of the Puget Sound Blood Center. I am proud to be part of an organization that provides such an important service for the community,” she says.  “I look forward to leading the Transfusion Service to an even higher level of excellence.”

Vaughan comes to the Blood Center following 27 years with Kaiser Permanente, most recently in Hawaii where she was administrative director of Kaiser Permanente’s Hawaii Regional laboratories over the last two years.  Prior to that Vaughan worked with Kaiser Permanente in Portland in several capacities, most recently as assistant administrative director of laboratories. 

Outside of work Vaughan, who resides in Renton, enjoys golf and traveling.

Puget Sound Blood Center is an independent, community-based blood center with a long and unique tradition of blending community volunteerism, medical science and research to improve patients’ lives.  The Blood Center performs research, provides medical and tissue banking services in addition to being an internationally recognized as a leader in transfusion medicine and operates the world's largest transfusion service.  The Blood Center serves patients with leukemia, cancer, burns, hemophilia and traumatic injuries who depend on transfusion and the breakthrough discoveries made by Blood Center scientists.  For more information on the Blood Center visit www.psbc.org. 

If you would like more information or would like to arrange an interview with Mimi Vaughan, contact Tom Butterworth at 206-292-6511 or pager 206-680-2610.

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