CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (KCRG) – A hospital group that serves New Orleans is asking people to donate blood to help those injured after a truck “intentionally” drove into a crowd on Bourbon Street. Blood centers across the country, including here in Iowa, are also pitching in to help with supply.

ImpactLife serves eastern Iowa, as well as parts of Illinois, Missouri, and Wisconsin. Wednesday, the nonprofit shipped blood to New Orleans as part of the Blood Emergency Readiness Corps (BERC). That system is a relatively new setup that plays a key part in supporting healthcare systems after any kind of widespread injury to a community.

“Additional blood components shipped already today to New Orleans. The blood center in New Orleans needed that outside support,” said Kirby Winn, Public Relations Manager for ImpactLife.

The attack on Bourbon Street in the early morning hours on New Year’s Day killed 15 people and injured at least 35.

When there’s a mass casualty, whether it’s an attack or a natural disaster, it puts a strain on a region’s health care system. That’s where BERC steps in, with blood centers across the country helping the affected area absorb the sudden hit to its resources.

“There are people in that region who will need blood transfusions not connected to this New Year’s Eve event in the French Quarter. And so we’re making sure that blood is available for the blood center in New Orleans to meet ongoing patient needs,” Winn said.

BERC puts blood centers in a rotation where they’re on call every three weeks, an attempt to create some predictability in the face of the unknown.

“It is a relatively new entity within blood banking that was established kind of during the years of the pandemic when blood supplies were really severely constrained and there was concern about where would blood come from.”

Blood banks now have a better answer of where blood comes from when it’s needed, so while no one at ImpactLife knows the future, they are ready to help

“We just don’t know what could occur, but we do know that if we have a strong and stable blood supply, and the partnerships, and connections made in advance that we’ll do a better job responding.”

Winn said ImpactLife sent 5 units of type O+ and two units of O-, enough to pitch in and offer support without compromising local supply.

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It is going to cost more in 2025 to be an Iowa State athletics fan. 

Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard announced on Wednesday that the athletic department will “increase by over 20% in 2025,” which is expected to mean they need $20 million more to deal with the increase. 

Pollard, who sent out a letter via the official school website, stated that the need is due to a number of things.

“The financial pressure facing our athletics program is no different,” Pollard wrote. “Due to sharing revenues with our student-athletes, securing Coach (Matt) Campbell and (TJ) Otzelberger to long-term contracts, and changes to Big 12 Conference and College Football Playoff revenue distributions” the department needs the money.

He noted that all the successes for the Cyclones have not come without the needed revenue growth. That includes a win last month in the Pop-Tarts Bowl over Miami, a trip to the Big 12 title game and an appearance in the Maui Invitational by the men’s basketball program.

Here are a number of the things Pollard noted will change in 2025:

“In addition, we are continuing to explore other opportunities to increase revenues and/or reduce expenses,” Pollard wrote. “Including asking our coaches and department heads to reduce their respective annual operating budgets by 10%.”

Four hospitals in Iowa, including one in Des Moines, have been named among the high performers for maternity care in the United States by U.S. News & World Report.

U.S. News analyzed 817 hospitals across the United States for seven metrics: rates for cesarean section, severe unexpected newborn complications, breast milk feeding, routine vaginal birth after cesarean deliveries and episiotomies and whether a hospital meets new federal criteria for “birthing-friendly” practices and tracks and reports outcomes for patients of different races and ethnicities.

Only half of evaluated hospitals were recognized as being among the best for maternity care.

The U.S. News ratings focused only on uncomplicated pregnancies and not high-risk ones, such as those involving mothers with diabetes or high blood pressure or who are pregnant with twins.

“The hospitals recognized by U.S. News as best hospitals for maternity care showcase exceptional care for expectant parents,” Jennifer Winston, a health data scientist at U.S. News, said in a news release. “These hospitals demonstrate significantly lower C-section rates and severe unexpected newborn complications compared to hospitals not recognized by U.S. News.”  

What Iowa hospitals were named best for maternity care by U.S. News?

The hospitals in Iowa City, Mason City and Cedar Rapids received excellent ratings for minimizing avoidable C-sections, with less than 24% occurring in connection with first-time, low-risk pregnancies at full term.

At MercyOne Des Moines, severe newborn complications were low compared to the other three hospitals, where complications occur at an average rate, U.S. News said. Severe newborn complications occur when full-term newborns with normal birth weight and no preexisting conditions are injured or develop infections.

The median hospital rate of severe newborn complications is 13 per 1,000 births, according to U.S. News.

MercyOne Des Moines, Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids and the University of Iowa Health Care Medical Center all have an episiotomy rate of less than 5%.  An episiotomy, a surgical cut made in the perineum during childbirth, is not recommended for routine use except in specific clinical cases.

The national and Midwest averages for babies exclusively breastfed during their hospital stay are 49% and 51%, respectively. The Cedar Rapids, Iowa City and Mason City hospitals exceeded these averages, with Mercy Medical Center Cedar Rapids being the highest at 81%.

More: This Des Moines hospital was rated 5 stars by CMS. How do the others compare?

What other hospitals in the Midwest were named high-performing hospitals for maternity care by U.S. News?

Here are the number of hospitals recognized as high-performing for maternity care in states bordering Iowa.

Cooper Worth is a service/trending reporter for the Des Moines Register. Reach him at cworth@gannett.com or follow him on X @CooperAWorth.