Screen The Donor And Decide Eligibility

Before anyone gives blood, the bank has to be sure it is safe — both for the donor and for whoever receives the unit. That check is the screening, and you do it on the donor’s own Screen tab. You record a handful of vitals and the donor’s haemoglobin, then set a single outcome that decides whether they may donate today.

Two terms worth knowing. Haemoglobin (abbreviated Hb, measured in grams per decilitre, g/dL) is the iron-rich protein in red cells; a donor whose Hb is too low should not give blood, for their own safety. PCV (packed cell volume, sometimes called haematocrit) is the percentage of blood made up of red cells — a second, related read on the same thing. And a deferral is a decision not to take blood: a temporary deferral pauses the donor until a date you set; a permanent deferral locks them out for good.

Who / when: the Blood Bank Officer, Nurse, Lab Scientist or Donor Attendant, every single time a donor presents — even a regular. Eligibility is decided per visit, not once and forever.

We pick up Tunde’s walk-in voluntary donor from registration, now sitting down for assessment.

Screen the donor and set the outcome

1. Blood Bank Officer — on Blood Bank → Donors, find the donor (search by name, donor id or phone) and click their row to open the record. It opens on the “Screen” tab.
2. Nurse — record the vitals you have measured: “Haemoglobin (g/dL)”, “PCV (%)”, “Systolic BP”, “Diastolic BP”, “Pulse (bpm)”, “Temperature (°C)” and “Weight (kg)”. Fill in what you took; blanks are allowed for anything not measured.
3. Nurse — set “Screened By” by searching for yourself or the assessing clinician in the staff picker.
4. Blood Bank Officer — set the “Outcome”. For a healthy donor with an Hb in range, choose “Accepted” and press “Save Screening”. The donor stays “Active” and is cleared to give blood today.

Note

The screening is a snapshot of this visit. It is recorded in the donor’s “History” tab alongside every past screening and donation, so you and the next officer can always see the trend — falling Hb, repeated deferrals, and so on.

Tip

A donor can be screened even while un-typed (no ABO/Rh group yet). Screening decides eligibility; grouping decides what the unit is. You can do them in either order — but you cannot collect until the group exists.

What the outcomes mean

The “Outcome” field offers three decisions, and each does something concrete to the donor record:

• Accepted — the donor is eligible; status stays “Active”.
• Deferred (Temporary) — the donor is paused; status flips to “Deferred” and a defer-until date is required.
• Permanently Deferred — the donor is locked out for good; status flips to “Permanently Deferred” with no end date.

Other ways this goes

Temporary deferral (low Hb, recent travel)

1. Blood Bank Officer — when a donor cannot give today but could later — a borderline-low Hb, a recent illness, travel to a malaria-risk area — set “Outcome” to “Deferred (Temporary)”.
2. Blood Bank Officer — a “Defer Until” date field appears and is required. Pick the date the donor becomes eligible again. If you try to save without it, Veona refuses with “A temporary deferral needs a defer-until date.”
3. Blood Bank Officer — type the explanation in “Deferral Reason”, then “Save Screening”. The donor’s status becomes “Deferred”, and they cannot have blood collected until that date passes.

Permanent deferral (positive infection history)

1. Blood Bank Officer — for a donor who must never give again — a positive infection history, for instance — set “Outcome” to “Permanently Deferred”.
2. Blood Bank Officer — record the “Deferral Reason” and “Save Screening”. The donor’s status flips to “Permanently Deferred” with no end date. Veona will not let this person be collected from again.

Caution

A reactive transfusion-transmissible-infection (TTI) result later in the chain will also defer a donor permanently — automatically, the moment the donation’s panel is signed out. That path is covered in Clear The Donation TTI Panel (Release Gate). You do not have to defer by hand in that case; the gate does it for you.

Deferral reason is captured on the record

1. Blood Bank Officer — whenever the outcome is a deferral, the “Deferral Reason” you type is saved against that screening and visible in the donor’s “History”. It is the audit of why the door was closed, so always write a clear, specific reason.

Later: defer or reactivate from the Manage tab

1. Blood Bank Officer — you do not need a fresh screening to change a donor’s standing. Open the donor and switch to the “Defer / Reactivate” tab.
2. Blood Bank Officer — set “Status” to “Active”, “Deferred (Temporary)” or “Permanently Deferred”. A temporary deferral again requires a “Defer Until” date; any non-active status takes a “Reason”.
3. Blood Bank Officer — press “Update Donor”. Use this to reactivate a donor whose temporary deferral has lapsed, or to defer someone outside a screening visit.

What happens next

An accepted, active donor with a typed ABO/Rh group is ready to give. The next step is the collection itself — drawing the donation and splitting it into the components your bank needs — on the donor’s Record Donation tab. A deferred donor stops here until their deferral lifts; a permanently deferred donor goes no further.

Follow the trail

• Previous: Register A Blood Donor
• Next: Collect Donation And Produce Components
• Related: Register A Blood Donor · Run The Bedside Two-Person Check And Transfuse