Testing Blood Before Donations

Video Transcript

"Well, the first thing we do, every donor that comes in to donate is actually, the test process starts that day. Believe it or not, a lot of people don't think of it that way. But, we prick every donor's finger to check their iron level. And we do that either through a hemoglobin test or Hematocrit test, different places do different things. So, we do that test that day, that lets us know if for that day if your iron is high enough for you to donate blood. Now, obviously, we're not going to take your blood if it's going to affect you negatively that day or in a negative way that day. So, we want to make sure you've got enough iron to be good when you leave plus to be able to give us a pint, to help somebody in the hospital that actually needs it. So, we do that test that day. There are standard tests we do to every unit of blood to every donor. No matter if you donate one time or six hundred times. You have the same tests going on every time. That way it's standard across the board. We make sure that every unit is as safe as it can be here at the American Red Cross. So, we do that, you know, some of the reasons are donors are differed, you know it can be reasons such as travel, hepatitis you know others things that come to play when the tests are done that lets us know this is not a safe unit. We do let donors know if their tests come up positive, we do let the donors know that by either a letter or a personal contact to let them know, Hey you need to come back in to be re tested because we want to make sure our tests are accurate and it was what it said it was. So, we want to get you back in and re test just to make sure everything is good. You know, we don't see an awful lot of lost products because of that. We have a very very good donor base, they're answering our questions properly, they know if they've been in places or in situations that might be cause for deferral and they don't give and most, everybody is honest on their answers that we get, we believe, and that makes our inventory as strong and as safe as it can be. We do as good a job as we can do with the tests and our donors that are coming in with us, and answering our questions properly to do what we need to do. And that?s maintaining a safe blood supply."