Donor Testing Lab

The Rhode Island Blood Center's Donor Screening Laboratory is among New England's Premier donor screening laboratories, earning a reputation for quality results and outstanding customer service.

Since its inception, the laboratory has continued to expand its services.

  • In 1991, the Rhode Island Blood Center's Donor Testing Laboratory expanded services to include donor screening for the Blood Center's Marrow Donor Program, a regional branch of the National Marrow Donor Program. Shortly thereafter we began accepting donor samples from New England hospitals in need of Infectious Disease testing.
  • In 2007, the Donor Screening Laboratory performed nearly 20,000 routine donor screens and 30,000 Nucleic Acid Amplification tests on whole blood, stem cell, and tissue donors from hospitals throughout New England.
  • The Rhode Island Blood Center currently has the only NAT laboratory for donor screening in New England. Two Novartis Tigris instruments for NAT testing, two Abbott Prisms and two BioRad Tangos in full operation in our Providence facility minimize downtime and maximize rapid turn around times for all client testing.
  • We are experienced with donor testing for Stem Cell, Bone Marrow, and Reproductive Tissue donors and recipients, including Singlet NAT testing.

For more information about our services and testing contact one of our representatives.

Outstanding Customer Service

  • A Client Services Representative with a Master's Degree in Clinical Laboratory Science and over 28 years of laboratory experience is on staff Monday through Friday providing a single point of contact for all client needs.
  • Our Medical Director is available for assistance with clinical interpretation of test results and donor management issues.

Reliability of Results

  • Novartis Procleix Nucleic Acid Amplification testing
    • Provides better sensitivity on all of its viral markers (HIV-1; HCV; HBV; WNV) as compared with other licensed assays.
    • All of the Procleix assays are FDA licensed for both whole blood and HCT/P donors.
  • Abbott Prism's Viral Marker Assays
    • Prism instrument has been used worldwide since 1996 in 30 countries to test over 15 million donations annually.
    • Increased assay kinetics and improved sensitivity due to microparticle maxtrix.
    • Chemiluminescent detection process is less susceptible to temperature and pH variation.
    • Less false reactives reduce reactivity rates and decreases the number of component discards and donor deferrals.
    • HBsAg assay meets FDA Lower Limit Detection Capability
      • Allows client to reinstate donors who were positive on Ortho's System 3 EIA assay.
    • HBcore Assay has decreased Reactive Rates by 50 percent.

Highly Competent Testing Staff = High Quality Results

  • All testing staff are licensed by the State of Rhode Island
    • To be eligible for licensure, an individual must have a Bachelor or Associate's Degree in Clinical Laboratory Science, Biology, Chemistry, or Physical Science, and be certified by a nationally recognized accrediting agency such as ASCP or NCA.
    • Complete at least 30 hours of continuing education every two years.
  • Rhode Island Blood Center and its Laboratories are licensed by the Federal Drug Administration under License #1786 to collect, prepare, store, distribute, and test blood components. We are accredited by CLIA (#41D0670559) and AABB and Licensed by the State of Rhode Island, License #LCI00150.
  • The Donor Testing Laboratory participates in College of American Pathologist (CAP) Proficiency Surveys.

Ease of Specimen Transportation

  • Providence, Rhode Island is a transportation hub that is readily accessible by car, bus, rail, or air. Transportation of specimens to Rhode Island Blood Center is less weather dependent and more budget conscious than shipping samples outside of New England.
  • Due to our business relationship with several local courier services, we offer extremely low rates for shipping donor samples to us. We arrange and manage the courier pickup schedule and bill you directly from Rhode Island Blood Center. We pass our volume discounts to you.

Web Assisted Sample Accessioning and Result Retrieval

  • Availability of Network Transfer of Results via FTP files delivering test results to a folder designated by client's facility using a path name and password assigned by the client's IT department.
  • Web Interface will soon be available to allow client to accession their own samples into our system and retrieve printable results at their own convenience.

The Rhode Island Blood Center Donor Screening Laboratory performs all initial screening tests mandated by federal regulatory agencies using state of the art instrumentation.

Olympus PK Instrumentation
Blood Cell Grouping
Syphilis Antibody Screens
CMV Antibody Screens

BioRad Tango
Atypical RBC Antibody Screens

Abbott Prism (Chemiluminescent Assays)
Viral Marker Screening for:
Hepatitis B core Antibody
Hepatitis B Surface Antigen
Hepatitis C Antibody
HTLV-I,II Antibody
HIV O Plus Antibody

Novartis Procleix Transcription Mediated
Nucleic Acid Amplification (NAT) Testing
Hepatitis C
HIV-1
Hepatitis B
West Nile Virus
performed in Pools of 8-16 or in Singlet

Chagas Disease Screen
(T. cruzi Antibody)
currently being sent to outside reference
laboratory, will be brought in-house
by Fall 2010.