AIM Reinstates By-Mail Policy

mail policy.

Mitchell: "We are reinstating the PCR-DNA by-mail policy. We have added specific and strict guidelines regarding identification and qualified personnel. It has to be signed off by a facility. There has to be two picture ID's. The identification has to be witnessed by the person signing off on it. They have to attach a copy of two picture I.D's The blood has to be sealed and shipped Fed EX in accordance with the new CDC regulation for bio-hazardous shipping. These are some of the changes being made. There's also a partner-notification release included in there.

"We feel we've sewn up all these things since October. When we discontinued it, we didn't really quite have everything sewn up like we do now. The fact that our critics pointed out some situations to us, we've been able to come up with excellent protocol in accordance with CDC shipping regulations. I feel very safe with it.

"We greatly appreciate the input of the industry for pointing out any possible leaks in this. We did have a few open-ended situations, but the most important thing here is that we are going to earmark out-of-state test results because there are some producers and manufacturers that may not want to accept the out-of-state test results. They have the option to take it or not. This policy is specifically for existing clients who are out on the road dancing, and we already have their ID's on file. I feel we have a more than adequate chain of custody for our by-mail."

G. Ross: "In these out-of-state cases, how specifically is the blood sample being safe guarded?"

Mitchell: "We make sure that they have a doctor's order there. Part of the policy is that the licensed phlebotomist, the nurse or the physician there signs off. Not only do they sign off that they took the specimen but they also sign off that the photo identification matches the person's blood they drew. It actually says that on the policy. The clinic signs off that they took the specimen from the person, and the blood is sealed.

"Blood can only be picked up from a facility. It cannot be picked up from someone. The liability lies with the facility. It goes from facility to facility. Just like every other sperm sample or alcohol screening sample. We follow a similar chain of custody to blood alcohol. It's that type of policy we've adapted."

Mitchell said the policy was reinstituted for a specific reason. "We had people exposed to HIV during the East Coast Video Show. We feel that if they had a place to send the blood that specializes in PCR-DNA, we can avoid this problem in the future. As people shoot out of state more and more, we're going to run into this. At AIM we need to give the out-of-California clients an option. Without it, we're in worse danger than with it."