Guidelines for Clinical Centers

Facilities

Inpatient Unit

1. Transplant programs should have the following:
   1. A designated inpatient unit that minimizes airborne contamination.
   2. Policies regarding infection prevention and isolation.
2. Inpatient transplant units should maintain a nurse-to-patient ratio satisfactory to cover the severity of the patients’ clinical status.

Outpatient Unit

1. Provisions for prompt evaluation and treatment should be available on a24-hour basis.
2. Nurses experienced in the care of transplant patients should be on staff.
3. There should be a designated outpatient area to care for patients requiringlong-duration infusions or the administration of multiple medications or bloodproduct transfusions.
4. Written policies, similar to those above, covering various aspects of outpatientcare should be in place.

Other Facilities

1. Each program must have:
   1. A processing laboratory that meets standards developed by the Foundation for Accreditation of Hematopoietic Cell Therapy (FAHCT), formed jointly by ASBMT and the International Society for Hematopoietic and Graft Engineering (ISHAGE).
   2. A blood bank providing 24-hour blood component support for transplant recipients, including irradiated blood products and products suitable for cytomegalovirus-negative transplants.
2. Programs performing allogeneic marrow and blood transplantation should havehistocompatibility studies performed by an HLA-testing laboratory that hasthe capability of DNA-based HLA-typing and is accredited by the American Societyof Histocompatibility and Immunogenetics (ASHI).
3. Programs performing allogeneic marrow (or blood) transplantation must haveaccess to a pathologist experienced in the interpretation of graft-vs.-hostdisease.

G. Phillips, MD (Chair); J. Armitage, MD (ex officio); S. Bearman, MD; J. Bitran,MD; J. Fay, MD; S. Forman, MD; D. Hurd, MD; H. Lazarus, MD; P. Warkentin, MD;J. Wolf, MD, Biology of Blood and Marrow Transplantation. 1:54-55 (1995)