2026 Lab of the Year Runner Up: Inova Blood Donor Services

April 7, 2026

7 min read

Inova Blood Donor Services (IBDS) is one of the recipients of Medical Laboratory Observer's 2026 Lab of the Year Runner Up Awards! They are located in Sterling, VA and serve more than 8 million patients. They administered more than 550,000 tests in 2025, with only eight techs. The laboratory and donation center work hand in hand to deliver quality and compassionate care. IBDS’ resilience and commitment to patient care made them stand out during the Lab of the Year running.

“Being recognized by MLO as a Lab Runner Up is a great honor for Inova Blood Donor Services and a testament to the critical role our laboratory plays within Inova’s hospital-based blood center,” said Sean McCleary, Vice President, Professional Services, Inova Health System. “Our team is uniquely positioned to test and process donated blood with an unwavering focus on quality and safety, ensuring a safe, pure and potent blood supply for patients across Inova and our healthcare partners throughout the Washington, DC metropolitan region. This recognition reflects the dedication of our laboratory professionals and their commitment to delivering reliable, lifesaving blood products every day.”

Staff member getting ready for a day of testing.

An uninterrupted supply chain

Inova’s purpose is “to provide a safe, pure, potent and adequate blood supply for patients in the diverse communities we serve.”¹This starts with their 98.93% fill rate for orders and 739 blood drives conducted in 2025. Inova told MLO that they experienced an “uninterrupted supply chain” in 2025 due to the efforts of their staff and 50,513 donors. They ensure all blood products are compliant with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the Association for the Advancement of Blood & Biotherapies (AABB).

“For IBDS, regulatory compliance is inseparable from patient outcomes,” commented Darryl Elzie, PsyD, MHA, MLS (ASCP), CQA (ASQ) B+, Manager, Regulatory Affairs, Inova Blood Donor Services. “Every SOP, validation study, and quality review ultimately supports safe transfusion practices across our health system and the region we serve as whole. Being named the MLO’s 2026 Runner-up validates that our regulatory framework is not only vigorously compliant, but it is operationally effective and mission driven.”

Through a collaboration with emergency responders, Inova is able to provide type O blood to emergency vehicles so patients can receive prehospital care, particularly those that live in rural areas. 73,640 blood products, including 49,104 red blood cells were distributed to Inova patients in 2025.

Blood components prepared for shipping out to hospitals.

Nicholas Lilly, MBA, B+, Senior Director, Inova Blood Donor Services said, "As a hospital-based blood center that supports a large health care provider in the DC area, we rely on obtaining test results for donations within 24 hours of collection so that we may get those products to patients as soon as possible. We are so fortunate to have a high-quality team of Laboratory Professionals that perform amazing work day in and day out; without our Lab Team, we would not be able to ensure that our products are pure, potent and safe."

Overcoming storage challenges

IBDS average 2025 Sigma score for operational efficiency was above 3.83, despite two walk-in refrigerators and two walk-in freezers failing. They were rebuilt ahead of schedule without consequential disruption to hospital and EMS services. IBDS would like to thank the following vendors for their work on the walk-ins:

Diversified Laboratory Repair
Calloway Contracting Group
Architecture Incorporated
First on Site

Testing

Based on federal requirements, the following equipment is used at IBDS:

Alinity s for HB core antibody, HB surface antigen, HCV antibody, HTLV ½ antibody, HIV 1/2/Group O antibody, and Chagas antibody.
Panther for HBV, HIV, and HCV Nucleic acid testing.
Erytra for ABORH, antibody screen, and red cell phenotyping.
Neo Iris for ABORH, antibody screen, antibody identification, antibody titer testing, and red cell phenotyping.
Gemini for HLA Class I & II antibody.
BacT/Alert for bacterial detection of platelets.
ABX Micros 60 hematology analyzer.
Adam HT for rWBC.
Basic Array Imaging System for molecular red cell genotyping.

All IBDS professionals who process tests are American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP) or American Medical Technologists (AMT) certified.

To track the quality of their testing, the lab implemented two continuous quality monitors, Instrument Maintenance Logs and Clerical Errors. Since adopting the new technology, the lab has experienced lower clerical errors.

Additionally, IBDS enhanced its testing portfolio in 2025 by:

Validating the EZ2 Connect platform for PreciseType HEA molecular-bead-chip testing
Enabling advanced red cell genotyping to support complex transfusion scenarios and patients with higher alloimmunization risk
Validating replacement and additional Procleix Panther and Procleix Xpress (v4.0) systems
Achieving nucleic acid testing (NAT) capacity and resilience against instrument downtime without interruption
Authorizing six portable point-of-care hematology analyzers (PixCell HemoScreen) for mobile blood drive access

Teamwork- making an impact

In addition to making blood testing more accessible through their mobile initiatives, the IBDS team worked to have Prehospital Transfusion Whole Blood (PHTWB) added to the National Defense Authorization Act. They sent their Medical Director and Regulatory Affairs Manager to appeal to Congress in 2025 and advocated for the program to be brought to Virginia. The program includes 30 EMS and air-medical units across Virginia.

Excellent teamwork is the foundation of IBDS’ success in providing impactful patient care. Their team of 105 consists of Donor Specialists, Medical Laboratory Scientists, Medical Laboratory Technicians, Hospital Services, Quality Assurance, Materials Management, Center Collection, a Mobile Operations Team, an Administrative Team, the Information Technology Support Team, and the Blood Bank Team. Impressively, IBDS dropped their employee turnover rate by more than 6% in 2025, making turnover less than 15%.

IBDS performing pathogen reduction step.

Along with the achievements mentioned throughout this article, the IBDS team’s efforts in 2025 resulted in:

Satisfactory proficiency testing results the whole year
Continuous compliance with AABB and FDA standards
More than 5,000 hours of training completed to enhance donor services, apheresis, POCT hematology, quality operations, and regulatory compliance
The introduction of cold-stored platelets
Pathogen reduction

Srilatha Jayavarapu O+, Laboratory Services Manager at Inova Blood Donor Services emphasized, “Commitment to patient care is all that drives the discipline, hard work, persistence and decisions for me and my team.”