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Directed Donation Procedure

A directed donation is a donation made for a specific recipient. Through directed donations, recipients can receive blood from family members and friends. While no medical evidence exists that shows directed blood donations are safer than donations from the community blood supply, some recipients may feel more comfortable selecting their own donors. Directed donations may not be appropriate for emergency procedures since it takes time to fully test and process each unit of blood.

Central Blood Bank is the link between donors giving on a patient’s behalf and the hospital where the transfusion will occur. If a physician recommends and/or a patient prefers to receive directed donations, Central Blood Bank makes every effort to collect, test, process, and distribute the blood units to the hospital for surgery.

It is the patient recipient’s responsibility, or they may select a representative, to schedule directed donation appointments and ensure that these recruited donors keep their appointments. Central Blood Bank schedulers cannot call directed donors to ensure that they come in to donate.

Directed donations are made by appointment only and can be donated at any of our community donor centers (link).

Before donating, directed donors and recipients must follow a simple protocol

1. Patients must obtain a prescription from their physician. It must include the patient’s name, type and screen for directed donation, type and amount of blood product(s), date required, and hospital where the blood product(s) should be sent.

2. Donors can call Central Blood Bank's Special Donations office to schedule the directed donation. We need to know the patient’s blood type. If the patient doesn’t know his or her blood type, a typing will be ordered by a physician, which can be performed at a hospital’s transfusion service or at an independent/affiliates lab.

3. Patients can obtain confirmed blood type by calling Special Donations at: 1-800-310-9552, 48 hours after a sample has been drawn.

4. Patients need to recruit family members and friends for the required number of blood products needed. It is important to recruit extra donors since some of the selected donors may not have a compatible blood type, or may be ineligible to donate. The chart below can help donors select individuals with the proper blood type.

5. After the donors have been recruited, the selected donors must call Central Blood Bank’s Special Donations Office to schedule their blood donation appointment. When the blood donor calls, he/she will need the name of the patient and the hospital in which the patient will be treated.

All directed donors must meet the same strict regulatory requirements set by the Food and Drug Administration for the general blood supply. Any directed donation that does not meet the regulatory requirements will be destroyed. Directed donors must also meet the same criteria as general blood donors regarding prior health history and high-risk activities. Directed donors will be deferred from giving based upon the standard regulatory requirements for blood donation.

If directed donations meet all the safety requirements and for some reason, such as a change in the date for surgery, cannot be used for the intended patients, those units of blood may be used in the community blood supply. This is done so the precious resource benefits a patient.

Central Blood Bank’s Special Donations coordinators are available to answer questions and make appointments for autologous and directed donations. The telephone number is 412-209-7020, or toll free at 1-800-310-9552.