Blood Bank

Location:

Ein Kerem: Ground floor, Phone 02-6776051
Sunday - Thursday, 8:00 - 15:00;
Friday and holiday eves, 8:00 to 12:00 , Please call beforehand.

Mount Scopus: 5th floor, near the laboratories
Phone 02-5844777
(Internal phone 44 777)
Sunday, Monday, Wendnesday: 8:15 to 13:30


About Us
Founded in 1944, the Blood Bank is open around the clock throughout the year. It includes a blood donor service, a laboratory and a hepatitis laboratory, and is the only hospital Blood Bank in Israel with a large frozen store of red blood cells.

The blood bank at the Hadassah Ein Kerem and Hadassah Mount Scopus is responsible for the supply of blood and blood components for all hospitalized patients. Each year it provides more than 50,000 units of blood and its components for hospitalized patients, among them accident and terror victims, patients with blood diseases and patients in need of surgery. Department staff are take an active part in donating or soliciting donations of blood and with the preparation of blood components in accordance with medical indications, as well as obtaining blood and its components from MDA as needed in order to replace any shortage.

The blood bank is part of the "Hematology Movement" which also includes the Department of Hematology, the Department of Bone Marrow Transplants and the Neuro-Oncology Unit. Prof. Dina Ben Yehuda serves as head.

The Blood Bank (Department of Transfusion Medicine) consists of 3 sub-divisions:

Donor rooms - active in Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem
Inpatient service laboratories - active in Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus
Laboratory for diagnosis of blood-born infections located in Ein Kerem

A. Donor Room
The primary purpose of the donor room is to receive donated blood and prepare blood components. There is a donor room at both Ein Kerem and Mount Scopus.

The donor rooms are responsible for collecting the units and their "disassembly" into various components which include: compressed erythrocytes, platelets, plasma and cryoprecipitates. Each of these elements has a unique role in patient care and their separation enables optimal utilization of each blood unit donated.

Other activities:
Special treatments of the units before infusion to the patient, such as: filtration (removal of white cells) and washing the blood components.
Blood-letting treatments in patients
Self blood donations including rare blood types for freezing

Approximately 50% of blood, red cells, platelets and frozen plasma transfused to Hadassah patients is supplied by the Blood Bank.

Donations of unique blood components are done in the donation room at Ein Kerem, and are given to patients with special needs, such as single donor platelets (SDP).Since 1989 SDP by Apheresis procedures have been done for bone marrow transplant patients and hematology patients, and about 10 procedures done a day. Since April 1986, all donor blood is screened for AIDS virus antibodies. Routine screening for Antibodies to HCV began in March 1991.

B. Laboratory Inpatient Service
Most of the laboratory work is related to matching and issuing the blood components to the patient.

The Laboratory Service tests patients' blood, provides blood tests and components for transfusion, and performs paternity testing. Approximately one in every 200 patients tested carries an antibody requiring special diagnosis. Since 1977, Hadassah has been a member of SCARF, the international rare blood exchange program, and the Medical Center's diagnostic sera have been shipped to 50 blood banks in 10 countries.

Specific tests performed in the laboratory:
Blood type determination and surveying the antibodies to red corpuscles
Detection of antibodies to red blood cells
Cross checking the blood

Central Laboratory for Diagnosis of Blood-Transmitted Infections

Responsible for checking the units of blood for the presence of contaminants. According to the Ministry of Health guidelines, the factors checked for are:

  • HBV
  • HIV 1/2
  • HCV
  • HTLV I, II
  • Syphilis