Jul. 31—The Lewiston Red Cross donation center will close Friday, and staff say it will be some months before its donations in Lewiston resume with mobile blood drives.
Matt Ochsner, regional communications director, provided a statement from the American Red Cross Idaho-East Oregon Region:
“After the closure, there will be a brief period while the Red Cross updates structure and process,” the statement said. “Mobile blood drives in the Lewiston area will resume once that process is complete, likely in January 2026.”
The site closure will not affect the availability and timely distribution of blood and blood products to hospital partners and patients, according to the Red Cross.
The organization chose to close the Lewiston blood donation center because of how much it cost to run.
Blood from the Lewiston center was flown to Salt Lake City for processing and testing, Ochsner said in a May interview, which was costly and logistically challenging.
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The center closed after 27 years in Lewiston.
“Despite our best efforts, this donation center is among the top high-cost centers in the country and has struggled to collect enough donations to meet goals over the past two years,” according to the statement. “The Red Cross needs to adjust its operations in order to deliver cost-effective and reliable products and services for patients in need.”
The Red Cross will continue to offer disaster preparedness and response activities, services to military members, veterans and their families, and health and safety training.
The Red Cross encourages donors to continue giving blood. Information on where to donate can be found at 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-WW733-2767), RedCrossBlood.org, or the Red Cross Blood Donor App.
Another nonprofit, Vitalant, does collect blood donations in Lewiston at 1213 21st Street and is open Monday through Friday.
Sun may be contacted at rsun@lmtribune.com or on Twitter at @Rachel_M_Sun. This report is made in partnership with Northwest Public Broadcasting, the Lewiston Tribune and the Moscow-Pullman Daily News.
