The Donation Process

The donation procedure for the Armed Forces is a simple six-step process:

  • Registration
  • Prescreening
  • Physical Assessment
  • Interview
  • Blood Donation
  • Refreshments
When you arrive at the donor center or mobile blood drive, staff members will guide you through the following steps:

Registration

During registration, donors present photo identification and their demographic information is entered into the Defense Blood Standard System (DBSS). This information is then printed onto a form with questions for donors to answer. The questions help determine if there are other factors (medications, foreign travel,
etc.) that should be considered before donation.

Travel Form

When you first register to donate, the Register NCO will ask you if you have been outside the U.S. since 1980 and if you have taken any prescribed medication in the past four weeks. If you have done either, you will have to fill out a travel form indicating where you went, how long you were there, and what medications you are on. Some of the travel details may defer you from donating, depending on where you went, when you went, why you went (DoD, pleasure, etc.) and how long you were there. Same thing with the medications (See Deal Breakers).

Even though you will be in the system after you donate, each time you come in for a blood drive, Dept. of Defense regulations stipulate that you must fill out this form each time. To expedite this, the travel form can be downloaded from the ASBP website. You may want to fill it out once and make copies, so that you just need to bring in a copy when you donate. Here is the link to the travel form (.pdf format):

http://www.militaryblood.dod.mil/Donors/Donor_History_Form.pdf

Prescreening

During prescreening, a member of the blood donor staff will discuss the most common reasons potential donors may not be eligible to give blood (See Deal Breakers). This allows donors to ensure they meet the basic criteria before continuing through the remainder of the process. Depending on the blood donor center setup and number of donors present, this step may be handled as part of registration.

Physical Assessment

This "mini physical" consists of several quick measures to determine if there are any obvious physical reasons a person is ineligible to donate. The technician will record the temperature, pulse, and blood pressure of the donor. They will also perform a "finger stick" to obtain a small amount of blood to test for hemoglobin. If all measures fall within the accepted guidelines, the donor can proceed to the interview.

Interview

The interviewer will review the donor's registration form during this confidential interview. Any responses that would possibly disqualify a person from donating are discussed and a decision is made as to whether the donor is eligible to donate.

Blood Donation

This part is easy! The technician will do most of the work. Often times, donors say they feel just a pinch. And you get a complementary gift, such as a T-Shirt or travel mug.

Refreshments

This is our chance to say thank you. Donors must remain in the center for at least ten minutes after donating to make sure there are no adverse side effects. During this time, donors are given the opportunity to partake of the great refreshments provided by the drive's sponsor (a veteran service organization, like the American Legion). Sloppy joes, hot dogs, pies cookies---Donors are encouraged to help themeselves,  to ensure their body fluids and blood sugar remain at normal levels.

See? Not that bad

Donating blood is a simple way almost anyone can save up to three lives. The actual donation only takes about ten minutes, however, the preliminary steps outlined above, designed to keep donors healthy and the blood supply safe, adds another half hour to the process. In general, the entire blood donation process takes about an hour. Actual times vary by the number of people donating that day.

Where Does My Blood Go?

The Armed Services Blood Program (ASBP) collects nearly all of its blood from the military community for the military community. ASBP bi-monthly blood drives at the Whitehall Army Reserve Center in Central Ohio are one of the VERY few instances in the country where the general public can participate as well, allowing those civilians who donate blood to become a privileged part of the Life Force for the military sick and injured.

Remember, although civilian agencies also collect and process blood, it is generally sold to the local community. The ASBP is the only blood collection service that meets military blood needs and supplies blood products to the Armed Forces. The ASBP is a part of the medical component of the Department of Defense. As such, it is a military operation, created mainly to meet the blood needs of the troops in combat.

There are 22 ASBP blood donor centers at military installations worldwide (See info on home page). The one for the Eastern Midwest (ours) is located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB) in nearby Dayton, Ohio.

So what happens to the blood
AFTER you donate?

Blood essentially is made up of three basic components: red blood cells (RBCs), platelets, and plasma. None of these can be stored indefinitely. Red blood cells must be used within 35-42 days of collection, and Platelets have an even shorter shelf life—they must be stored at room temperature and used in five days after collection. If processed within six hours of the donation time, the plasma can be frozen and stored for as long as a year.

Thus, time is of the essence.

At the end of the blood drive at 2 p.m., after the last donation has finished, the ASBP mobile crew quickly loads up their equipment, carefully marks and packs their precious donations in chilled containers, and immediately returns to their regional Blood Donor Center at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base (WPAFB). Normally, the blood would then be sent to an
Armed Services Whole Blood Processing Laboratories (ASWBPLs), but since WPAFB has their own lab in-house,
the blood is processed right there.

The collected blood is separated into two major components: red cells and plasma. Then it is tested. The tests that are performed are dictated by directives from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA)  and by the Dept. of Defense's Armed Services Blood Program Office (ASBPO). Some of the tests that are performed on donated blood include:

  • Blood Type
  • Syphilis
  • HTLV – I/II
  • Hepatitis B and C
  • HIV – 1/2
  • West Nile Virus

Once the blood has been collected, processed, and tested,
it is ready for use by the military. Each component is
carefully reviewed by a QA team to ensure that all
procedures were followed prior to labeling and shipping.
The products are then checked again, retyped, packed and then readied for shipment.

The WPAFB ASBP team normally transports blood into various theatres of operations by two methods: 1) either freezing and storing small quantities until enough for a shipment has been collected (called pre-positioning), or
2) if they have a sizeable collection (which always includes
our drives), they immediately send the large, fresh shipment
of blood and blood components to the Expeditionary Blood Transshipment Systems (EBTS).

Each Armed Forces service branch has its own set of blood bank centers: for the Army, Air Force, and Navy/Marines. However, they all coordinate their efforts with the central Armed Service Blood Program Office. When necessary, that office also coordinates with civilian blood donor centers to try and purchase whatever extra blood supplies they need; the price varies with type needed and availability. Weekly shipments and locations are determined by the ASBPO
and vary, depending on worldwide military deployments and
ongoing operations. Assured delivery thus depends on the individual components of the ASBP working together.

Over three-quarters of our blood donations though, are driven right across the base at Wright-Patterson and loaded onto a military jet transport, which is part of the Expeditionary Blood Transshipment System. It is then flown as priority flight directly overseas to a Blood Supply Depot (BSD) in-theatre, either in Iraq, or Afghanistan. From there, the blood is shipped either by truck or helicopter to the Blood Supply Units (BSUs), which are typically hospitals behind the front. About half of that shipment gets sent on to unit first responders that are deployed at the front, for transfusion to just-injured servicemen. First responders include forward surgery units (Remember the movie “M*A*S*H”?) and medics or corpsmen in the field.

The citation-winning ASBP center at WPAFB is one of the most efficient and expeditious of the 22 ASBP centers in the world, so the entire process for them takes less than seven days. Thus, if a donor gives blood to us on a Saturday, their donation will be processed and over there and ready to go into an injured serviceman or a servicewoman in a matter of days.

Both for us civilians and for drilling reservists or National Guardsmen, we know of no better, more efficient, effective way of directly supporting our troops fighting overseas.

And if you want to see results of your donation - check out the happy tears on some mom's face at the airport some time, as she sees her wounded son bravely walk off a plane, return from war. Your thanks is in her eyes.


The last ASBP blood drive at the Whitehall Army Center was September 26th. Here, an Atlas Air Boeing 747 taxis to a parking spot at an undisclosed location, early October, 2010. This jet carries blood products that will be used to support servicemen and servicewomen throughout the Central Command Area of Responsibility. (RELEASED U.S. Air Force Photo/Staff Sgt. Eric Harris)