Practice of blood collection centers that DO NOT USE diversion pouches when collecting blood products
A California blood banker wants to know if any blood collection centers DO NOT USE diversion pouches when collecting blood products. For such centers:
- Do you collect samples for required donor testing at the end of whole blood (or platelets pheresis) collection?
- Do you record the name or initials of the staff person that completes the collection of the unit and draws the samples for donor testing?
- For centers that record the name or initials of the staff person that completes the collection of the unit and draws the samples for donor testing, if the these initials are missing, do you discard the unit?
Editors' Note: The article by McDonald C, et al, Relative values of the interventions of diversion and improved donor-arm disinfection to reduce the bacterial risk from blood transfusion is germane to the above question.
The following comments have been submitted in response.
ADDENDA Oct. 18, 2009
- A Donor Services Specialist at a blood center in a west coast state reports that their institution does not use a diversion pouch for the collection of samples used in laboratory testing. Rather, samples for testing are collected at the end of the donation. They record the initials of the person who disconnected the donor and collected the test samples. They do not discard the unit if the initials are missing. They do not regard these as relating to the eligibility of the donor and would not therefore require discarding if missed and not discovered until the next day.
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