Donor Services and Donor Recruitment

Are you sampling all parts of split products? Are you releasing products prior to obtaining results? What are you doing about positives, are you re-testing using another method or simply discarding?

My team and I seek to better understand the unique challenges faced by Hospital Based Blood Centers in the scope of Donor Recruitment and Retention. As the creative force in Donor Recognition & Retention, we find Hospital Based Blood Centers (HBBCs) face hurdles uncommon to our average customer, the larger, regional blood center. Anyone from an HBBC program willing to join our Field Advisory Committee (FAC) to aide our creative team in developing donor recruitment, retention and frequency programs particular to the needs of HBBCs, please contact me directly at kendal@donorgifts.com. Thank you! Kendal Summers, BS, APR Non-Profit Brands Sales and Marketing Manager …

I am assisting in a study that will be looking at changes in RBCs over time. One of the questions we have is "Will changes be affected by the age of donors of RBCs?" Does anyone know of any sources that provide statistics on the age of the donor population in the U.S.? Thanks

Why can't we stop collecting/wasting autologus bood?

Years ago there was a maximum # of whole blood donations a donor could make /year. Does anyone know whether this still applies? The current edition of standards only states whole blood donation interval (Reference Standard 5.4.1A) is 8 weeks after whole blood donation.

Has anyone heard if giving blood lowers the donor's cholesterol levels? I was asked this question and did not have a definitive answer. Any ideas or anyone know where there is documentation to prove this? Thanks!

Who is doing something special for this, i.e. t-shirts, special drawings, etc?

If malarial maps and medication lists were available in an automated interview process would it be a more helpful reference tool for the donors or the staff reviewers :?:

At what level do you protect you donor information? Here is an interesting scenario that came up at a meeting in AABB 2004 Baltimore. A husband and wife arrive at your center to donate. The wife answers all questions truthfully, qualifies and successfully donates. The husband indicates that he has an ongoing sexual relationship with another man. Obviously you permanently defer the husband, but what will you do with the wife?

Currently we track the following for our plateletpheresis donors: RBC loss for prior 56 days RBC loss for prior 365 days Plasma loss for current donation Plasma loss for prior 365 days. We are considering dropping the RBC loss for the prior 56 days and switching that to RBC loss for current donation. Is anyone else tracking the RBC loss for the prior 56 days?

Here is an interesting topic from AABB 2004 Baltimore. A donor presents to your center. This donor indicates that she is a female. During the interview process she indicates that she was born genetically a male. Post 1977 and until present she has had male sex partners, including while she was a biologic male. She now will not be asked if she has had sex with a man even once since 1977. Also if her prior relationships as a man where monogamous, she might not answer that she had sex with a male who had sex with a man even once since 1977. So, what would you do? If you were to defer her, what would be your logic?

Standards require that RBCs shall be prepared by sparating the red cells from the plasma portion of blood using a method known to result in a final HCT of < 80%. We perform monthly QC and have a standard of 90% of units must be < 80%. I do not have a reference for this . Does anyone have a different standard and what reference did you use? Also, do you discard units of RBC that do not meet this criteria? We use CPDA-1 as our anticoagulant.

Hi, I am looking for a t-shirt supplier where I can just pick out a blood donor design from a "catalog" and customize it with own logo. Anyone recommend one (or more?) I hope this is the appropriate category for this topic...if not, I apologize in advance.

What identifiers do you require of your donors? We have two centers, at one almost all of the donors will give their SS#, at the other almost none will. It is in our SOPs that we "prefer" the SS# as a form of identification, but we will allow the DOB as the second form of ID. Does anyone require a SS#?

Has anyone else heard this? I saw on WebMD an article about a study in 2000 about a Flordia physician and researcher that found a correlation between giving blood and reducing the risks of heart disease, especially in men. The main focus is that high iron levels can increase the risk of heart disease by speeding the oxidation of cholesterol. For a better explanation, please visit http://my.webmd.com/content/article/12/1685_50247.htm I just found this very interesting and wasn't sure if anyone else had heard of this. Thanks! Bryan

Does anyone have ideas on recruiting during the week of September 11th? I have mixed emotions about doing this and I'm sure others do as well. If I do a specific promotion, I want to do something classy. Does anyone have ideas that have worked in the past? ANything that hasn't worked or generated bad letters to the editor? Thanks! Bryan

Does anyone have a unique way to keep platelet donors from leaving? How does staff interaction affect donors experience while they are donating? Do you think donors rather not feel like they have speak to staff while donating?

In June we will be holding a 25 year anniversary celebration. I am currently in search of fun activites for employees, donors, community to do either at the center during an Open House or perhaps during special drives we have planned. Any ideas or suggestions would be most welcomed!

I would really appreciate it if someone would explain to me the criteria being used to demonstrate bacterial contamination using the urine test strips? Thanks in advance.

Has anyone heard of any research done to develop a better testing method for this? I am sure we all know the effects this is having on recruiting blood donors. It has drastically hurt my donor base.

What is everyone doing about validating their chosen method for bacterial detection? Are you spiking real products? If so, how many different bugs and at what concentration are you inoculating? Our validation for Pall will consist of testing 30 pheresis products from the inventory. Then we will test 6 products that have been spiked with bacteria (6 different bacteria) at a concentration of 100 CFU/ml.

Is anyone using a pH meter for testing platelets for bacterial contamination? If so, what meter / electrode are you using and do you recommend it? What cutoff level are you using or planning to use?

I am puzzled that double RBCs from the varioius automated devices have been accepted so slowly. Can you tell me what your concerns are?

As a change for january, we offered free massages for donors for 3 days in addition to our shirts. the difference that made in the response was wonderful. i guess donors need massages after the stresses of the holidays. any other ideas?

What method for bacterial detection is everyone using? We are using Pall BDS.