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Patient Care
The two major areas of patient care that we offer are Therapeutic Procedures and Autologous Donations. To be sure that we can accurately meet all patient needs, these services are performed by appointment only at our Central Jacksonville Community Donor Center, located at 536 West 10th Street. For more information on patient care please contact our Donor Services Team at (904) 353-8263.
Therapeutic Donations:
Therapeutic Procedures are used to treat diseases characterized by the body's excess production of red blood cells or excess levels of iron (hemochromatosis) or heme by-products.
You cannot come into a donor center on your own and request a therapeutic procedure. It must be prescribed by your physician. To schedule the procedure with us, the physician must send a request to us, containing patient information, diagnosis, schedule of phlebotomy and minimum acceptable HCT level.
The process takes approximately 30 to 45 minutes. This includes 20 minutes for paperwork, 15 minutes to draw the blood and 10 to 15 minutes for recovery, during which time you will be given snacks and drinks. The beginning of the procedure is similar to a whole blood or apheresis donation. You will receive a mini physical and be asked questions about your health, medications, etc. However, unlike volunteer and autologous donations, the blood will not be tested after it is drawn, as blood collected from Therapeutic procedures is not made available for transfusion at any time.
Autologous Donations:
An Autologous Blood Donation is a procedure that allows you to donate blood to yourself prior to an upcoming operation, with your physician's approval. Your doctor will base his decision on whether the type of surgery you are scheduled for requires a transfusion and if your health allows you to give blood safely.
Once your operation is scheduled, your doctor must complete a request form for Autologous blood, and send the form to The Blood Alliance. We will contact you for an appointment as soon as we receive the information.
These appointments are ordinarily scheduled one week apart. All Autologous donations must be completed at least three days before your operation. Your Autologous units may be insufficient for your needs. If so, your doctor may use additional blood from the community blood supply. Autologous blood is for your use only. It will not be released to the community blood supply.
The Autologous Donation process is similar to the process for volunteer donations. We will test your iron level before each donation to determine if it meets the minimum level required for blood donations. Once the unit is drawn, it will be tested for infectious disease, such as HIV and hepatitis. We will report positive results in writing to you, your doctor, the medical director of the hospital transfusion service, and others as required by law.
If your blood unit tests positive for HIV or hepatitis, we must receive a written, signed and dated request from your doctor before we will release your blood to the hospital.
More information on Autologous donations can be found in our "How to Donate Blood to Yourself" brochure.
