For Immediate Release	Contact: Joyce Faria Brennan
January 31, 2007	508-961-5270
	brennanj@southcoast.org
Get this release in Word format

NEW BEDFORD, Mass. — The three hospitals that make up Southcoast Hospitals Group have been granted accreditation by the American Association of Blood Banks (AABB). Accreditation follows an intensive onsite assessment by specially trained AABB assessors and establishes that the level of medical, technical and administrative performance within the facility meets or exceeds the standards set by the AABB.

"The AABB accreditation reflects the high level of professional proficiency achieved by the Southcoast Blood Bank and transfusion services," said Maureen Brown, Laboratory Site Manager at St. Luke's and Tobey Hospitals. "The procedures are voluntary and demonstrate Southcoast's commitment to advanced learning, continuous improvement and the high quality patient and donor care."

The AABB's accreditation covers services provided at the three hospital sites. John K. Laverty, MD, is the Medical Director of the St. Luke's and Tobey blood banks, and Thomas Kiefer, MD, is the Medical Director of the Charlton site blood bank.

According to the AABB, the accreditation program is voluntary and assists blood banks and transfusion services in determining whether methods, procedures, personnel knowledge, equipment and the physical plant meet established requirements. Some 1,800 similar facilities across the United States and abroad have earned AABB Accreditation. The minimum requirements for accreditation of blood banks and transfusion services are based primarily on the AABB's Standard for Blood Banks and Transfusion Services.

Southcoast Hospitals Group has laboratories at all three hospital sites, but the only site that collects blood donations for the community is the Southcoast Blood Bank at St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford. For more information visit http://www.southcoast.org/bloodbank/.

AABB is an international non-profit membership organization dedicated to advancing the field of transfusion medicine and related biological therapies. To learn more go to www.aabb.org.

About Southcoast

Southcoast Health System, a not-for-profit charitable organization, is a community based health delivery system with multiple access points, offering an integrated continuum of advanced health services throughout Southeastern Massachusetts and East Bay, Rhode Island. It includes Southcoast Hospitals Group, formed in 1996 from the merger of Charlton Memorial Hospital in Fall River, St. Luke's Hospital in New Bedford and Tobey Hospital in Wareham.

Southcoast has more than 40 ancillary facilities, including the Southcoast Health Van, home health care, hospice and infusion services, numerous outpatient medical services, an assisted living facility and a wellness center. For more information visit www.southcoast.org.

Southcoast is one of three community hospitals approved by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health to perform open heart surgery and primary angioplasty beginning in Spring 2002.

Media Contact

Joyce Faria Brennan
Phone: 508-961-5270
Pager: 508-387-9605
Fax: 508-961-5876
brennanj@southcoast.org