Retention of prospective donors: a survey about services at a blood donation centre

In times of shrinking donor population the recruitment and retention of donors is of utmost importance.

To gain information about the donors' satisfaction with services at the blood donation service, and their reasons for not returning.

Prospective donors were interviewed by telephone about their eligibility examination. The survey included questions that measured the setting of the examination, staff friendliness, reminder for the first donation and questioned why the donor did not present for donation.

Eighty-eight prospective donors were surveyed. Most donors made an appointment for the eligibility evaluation and were content with the timeliness of the appointment by the transfusion staff. There were good scores (<2) for staff friendliness (2.0), registration of personal data (1.9), laboratory examination (1.7), information about blood donation (1.7) and medical examination (1.9). Various reasons for not returning for the first donation were mentioned, medical reasons and no time were mentioned most often.

Most prospective donors were content with the services offered by our blood donation service. Retention is difficult because most donors did not return for the first donation due to medical deferral reasons.