Community‐based Computerized Donor Record Systems

Computer programs for management of donor information have been developed for the Champaign County Blood Bank, a division of the Regional Health Resource Center, Urbana, Illinois. The system provides the blood bank with reports from the donor files, incorporating the donors' last donation dates, ABO group and Rh factors, memberships in assurance programs, and rare donor information to generate lists to meet either daily or emergency inventory needs. The system was designed to decrease time requirements for donor recruitment, improve donor base sampling, aid in support of special recruitment programs, and provide statistical profiles of the community donor base. Experiences in the development and use of the system indicate requirements for effective development of such systems include careful design, strict monitoring of performance, use of a versatile programming language, and incorporation of program modifications via staff‐programmer interaction throughout implementation.