Fayette County Medical Society Created the Central Kentucky Blood Bank
The Fayette County Medical Society created Central Kentucky Blood Center in 1968 to centralize blood-banking services in Fayette County. Prior to that, Lexington hospitals operated their own blood collections.
The next year, CKBC began serving four Lexington hospitals and operated out of the basement of the Perkins Pancake House on Limestone Avenue. CKBC provided for 15,000 transfusions in its first full year.
As CKBC continued to grow and serve hospitals outside of Lexington, it added donor centers in Somerset and eastern Kentucky. In 1978, the blood center left its original location and opened at 330 Waller Avenue, where it remained until 2007 when it relocated to its current headquarters in Beaumont Centre.
That same year, CKBC management, acknowledging the increasing service area, dropped “Central” and changed its name to Kentucky Blood Center to better illustrate the blood bank’s mission of helping to save lives throughout Kentucky.
KBC soon opened a second Lexington location in the Andover Shoppes and a Louisville donor center in Middletown in 2014. Another Louisville center, located in the Hillview area, will open in March 2018.
Lexington Medical Society doctors continue to play a vital role in KBC’s success. According to KBC’s by-laws, the LMS president and vice president elect sit on the KBC Board of Directors. The president of the KBC Board is also a physician.
The late Dr. David Stevens, who was on the FCMC board that created Central Kentucky Blood Center, was also the first donor to give blood at the Waller Avenue location and the first one to give at the current Beaumont Donor Center.