The Blood Center of Iowa » Quality Matters
Guaranteeing a Safe Blood Supply
The Blood Center of Iowa focuses heavily on the safety and quality of the community blood supply. The following procedures assure the safety of the blood supply:
Healthy, honest and responsible volunteer donors
The Blood Center of Iowa accepts only voluntary blood donations. It has been proven that blood, voluntarily donated, is much safer than a paid blood donation. A volunteer donor base is the most important and significant factor in providing a safe blood supply.
Donate blood today!
Direct and comprehensive screening of donors by health professionals
A mini-physical is conducted on donors before they donate. This includes a screening of the donor’s temperature, pulse, hemoglobin and blood pressure. A series of health and lifestyle related questions are also asked, including questions asking if they have any signs or symptoms of AIDS and if they consider themselves to be at risk for the AIDS virus.
Read more about the entire donation process.
Thorough laboratory testing
All blood undergoes testing in The Blood Center of Iowa’s state-of-the-art laboratory to make sure it is safe to transfuse to a hospital patient. In fact, more than one million separate tests are performed each year on the blood collected.
Learn more about our laboratory testing.