Whole Blood Donation
This is the most common type of donation received from our donors. The entire process takes about an hour and includes four simple steps:
- Complete a donor health questionnaire
- Mini-physical health screening
- One of our trained staff members will take your temperature, measure your blood pressure, measure your hemoglobin (iron) levels and ask questions about your questionnaire form and answer any questions you have.
- The donation
- This part typically takes less than 15 minutes
- The donation will go faster if you are hydrated!
- Please eat before you donate. There is no need to fast.
- Refreshments
- We ask that you stay about 15 minutes and have some snacks in our canteen area before leaving our facility.
After your generous blood donation is received, it travels to our testing facility where the white blood cells are removed and the remaining components are separated into units of red blood cells, platelets, and plasma.
When a patient needs a transfusion, medical teams typically prescribe platelets, red cells, or plasma, which is why the blood must be divided into components before being shipped to patients in need. Each time you donate whole blood you can help save more than two lives.
Ready to schedule your donation?
Schedule your appointment today!
Automated Blood Collection
Automated blood collection allows our trained specialists to safely collect specific components of your blood and return the rest to you using a sterile process. This method, called apheresis, draws components into separate bags, allowing the donation to go directly to testing. This means patients may receive the donation faster than a whole blood donation. Please note that there are different eligibility requirements for automated donations, which you can read about here.
The process for a platelet, plasma or red cell donation:
- Complete a donor health questionnaire
- Mini-physical health screening
- One of our trained staff members will take your temperature, measure your blood pressure, measure your hemoglobin (iron) levels and ask questions about your form and answer any questions you have.
- The donation
- Whole blood flows through single-use sterile tubing into a centrifuge chamber that spins your blood and separates the blood into its various components
- Each component is collected into a corresponding bag
- The unused components and an anticoagulant are returned to the donor during a “return cycle.”
- Refreshments
- We ask that you stay about 15 minutes and have some delicious snacks in our canteen area before leaving our facility.
Automated Donation Options
Platelets
Plasma
Double Red Blood Cells
Ready to schedule your donation?
Schedule your appointment today!