Transfusion Medicine/Blood Bank

Open 24 hours a Day, 7 Days A Week; Call TM/Blood Bank Services (804) 828-0256

The Transfusion Medicine Service supports a busy, level one trauma center, as well as active liver, cardiac, pediatric cardiac, neonatal, bone marrow transplant and hematology/oncology programs. It also supports an on site Apheresis Unit which provides therapeutic apheresis, photopheresis,  and peripheral blood stem cell collection.

24 Hours a Day - 7 Days a Week 
As a full service blood bank transfusion medicine department, we operate 24 hours a day seven days a week. We are dedicated to providing blood and blood products according to the highest standards of patient care and to assure compliance with regulatory agencies. We also provide transfusion management support to health care providers at our institution and in the community as well as throughout Virginia.  We are located on the 6th floor of the Gateway Building, at the corner of 12th and E. Marshall Street in Richmond, VA.

Information regarding visitor and valet parking is available online.

Additional parking information is available on the web from VCU Parking and Transportation Services: Complete parking information including the most current maps and contact information.

Testing 

Blood bank equipment [View Image]Testing is performed on patient samples to assure compliance with regulatory agencies through our active Quality Assurance Program. The Quality Program monitors system essentials that assure the safety, potency, and purity of blood as defined by the:

• Food and Drug Administration (FDA) American Association of Blood Banks (AABB) College of American Pathologists (CAP) International Standards Organization (ISO) Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA)
• Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO)

In addition to routine testing, in our special studies lab we perform complete antibody identifications on patients with routine, complex, and multiple antibodies from a diverse patient population, including sickle cell and oncology patients, and patients with warm auto antibodies.

Education and Training 

2 med techs working in blood bank [View Image]Education and training of medical technology students and residents in all aspects of blood banking, transfusion medicine, and laboratory procedures is an important endeavor in the lab. VCU offers a master's degree with a specialization in blood banking. Upon completion of the curriculum, students are eligible to take a national certification exam in the area in which they performed their concentrated study. For more information, please contact Teresa S. Nadder, PhD, MLS(ASCP)CM, Chairman and Associate Professor.

Research

The faculty members in Transfusion Medicine are engaged in several major research projects. The RedeS study is a study designed to examine transfusion of pathogen reduced red blood cells, as there are currently no FDA-approved pathogen reduced red blood cell products available for use in the United States. The PassItOn study is a study designed to examine transfusion of COVID-19 convalescent plasma. The Apheresis unit supports several studies of Chimeric Antigen Receptor T (CAR-T) cells. In addition, members of the Transfusion Medicine team regularly publish in the transfusion literature and present at national meetings.

Transfusion Medicine has an abstract selected for publication this year. This abstract is presented at the AABB national meeting. 2020 AABB Annual Meeting accepted abstract: 

Blood Utilization of Hematology-Oncology Patients during COVID-19 Crisis Using Temporary Transfusion Restrictions
K. Jones, S.M. Armstrong, and K. Sanford

Location

Virginia Commonwealth University, Department of Pathology
The Gateway Building, 6th Floor 
1200 East Marshall Street
PO Box 980231
Richmond, Virginia 23298-0662 
Main Lab Phone: (804) 828-0256
Fax: (804) 828-0876

Leadership and Contacts

Director of Apheresis: Susan D. Roseff, MD
Director of Transfusion Medicine: Kimberly W. Sanford, MD
Associate Director of Transfusion Medicine and Apheresis: Elizabeth Godbey, MD