Onboarding · Part 1 of 5

Taking a standalone blood center live on VenaShield

Take your blood center live, from the first sign-up to the first issued unit: site code, staff approval, two-factor sign-in, NBTC-capped rates and par levels.

This guide takes a private, standalone blood center from its first sign-up to its first issued unit. It is written for the center's owner or medical officer, and it describes VenaShield exactly as it works today.

Before you start

Have these ready:

• Your site code. VenaShield gives each center a short code, for example PUNE01. Every staff member types it when they sign up, and it keeps your data separate from every other center's.
• Your licence details and facility type (private or government). The facility type decides the maximum processing charges you can set.
• A list of your staff with their roles:
• phlebotomist
• lab technician
• medical officer
• issue technician
• quality manager
• One smartphone per staff member with an authenticator app (Google Authenticator, Microsoft Authenticator or similar). Two-factor sign-in is on by default.

Step 1: The site admin signs up

1. Open VenaShield and choose Sign up.
2. Enter your name, work email, a password and your site code.
3. Confirm your email with the code VenaShield sends you.

Your account now waits for approval. The VenaShield team approves your first account as Site Admin for your site. From then on, you run your own site.

Step 2: Your staff sign up, and you approve them

Each staff member signs up the same way, with the same site code. Their account arrives as pending approval.

1. Open Administration → Staff Directory.
2. Find each pending person.
3. Give them their role and approve them.

A medical officer at your site can also approve staff. People from other sites never appear in your list.

VenaShield keeps duties separate. The person who tests a unit cannot be the one who releases it, and the person who issues a unit cannot be the one who validated the crossmatch. Give each person the role they actually do.

Step 3: Set up two-factor sign-in

Two-factor sign-in is required at every site unless the VenaShield team switches it off for you, for example during a trial run. The setting is on the Site Security page, which only the VenaShield team can change.

At first sign-in, each staff member scans a QR code with their authenticator app. After that they enter a 6-digit code each time they sign in.

Step 4: Set your processing charges

Open Billing & Pricing → Rate Configuration:

1. Choose your facility type.
2. Enter your charge for each component: whole blood, red cells, plasma, platelets and cryoprecipitate.
3. Turn on the add-on services you offer: NAT testing, irradiation, leukofiltration and the crossmatch fee.

VenaShield will not save a rate above the NBTC ceiling for your facility type. Patients in the free-supply categories get a zero invoice automatically:

• thalassemia
• hemophilia
• sickle cell
• camp or replacement donors

Step 5: Tell VenaShield what stock you want on the shelf

Open Administration → Par Levels and set the number of units you want to keep for each blood group.

The collection queue uses these numbers. When a donor is waiting, it suggests the donor whose blood group you are shortest of.

Step 6: Add your partner blood banks and hospitals

Open Exchange & Loans → Loan Dashboard and add each partner to the External Entity Master:

• other blood banks you lend to and borrow from
• hospitals you supply
• the plasma fractionator you send surplus plasma to

Step 7: Your first day

A normal donation now runs through the app from start to finish:

1. Donor Registration. Search for the donor first, then register if they're new. Record the history questionnaire and vitals, and the medical officer signs off. VenaShield blocks a donor who is on the deferral register or who gave blood too recently.
2. Blood Collection. Collect the bag against its unit number.
3. Lab Testing. Record the five mandatory infection tests and blood grouping. A reactive result quarantines the unit and its components automatically.
4. Lab Authorization. A medical officer who did not do the testing releases the unit to stock.
5. Issue / Dispatch. Crossmatch, then issue to the patient and hospital, and print the invoice.

Every step is written to the audit log (Administration → Audit Logs) with who did it and when.

Trying it first

If you want a trial run before going live, ask the VenaShield team for a pilot site. It uses your code with -PILOT at the end. A pilot site is fenced off from real records. Your site admin can create test staff accounts there directly, without email confirmation or two-factor sign-in.

Next in the series: Onboarding a hospital blood bank