The American Red Cross does many things. I work for American Red Cross Blood Services, which is part of the American Red Cross Biomedical Services. Blood services is involved with recruiting blood donors and providing blood to our hospital customers. Another part of biomedical services is called tissue services. Tissue services is involved with providing tissue products such as bone, tendon, heart valves, and other types of tissue to hospitals who have patients needing tissue transplants.
Plasma operations is in another division of biomedical services.
They provide plasma products such as Factor 8, IVIG and other plasma product to hospitals and pharmacies throughout the country. One final area of biomedical services is the research and development area known as Holland laboratory. Research is performed at that institution in many different areas of transfusion medicine including blood supply safety, new transfusable products, new tissue derived products and some basic science investigations. American Red Cross chapters are found in communities throughout the United States. That number will put you in touch with the closest Red Cross to your area.