AHN prehospital blood program ‘will save lives’
PINE TWP, Allegheny County — When paramedic response units picked up blood from Allegheny Health Network’s Wexford Hospital for the first time Friday, Sept. 4, they hoped it would help them mitigate blood shortages while saving more lives in places like rural Butler County.
AHN cites the Stop the Bleed Coalition, claiming somewhere in the range of 31,000-60,000 Americans die each year from blood loss, “often within minutes of injury.”
“You can give them fluids out there, but to be able to give them red blood cells is much more impactful in terms of stabilizing the patient than the capabilities up to this point,” said Allan Klapper, president of AHN Wexford Hospital.
AHN’s prehospital care services launched its prehospital blood program Friday, enabling AHN paramedics to administer blood products to critically injured and ill patients, who are harmed by traumatic injuries and medical emergencies, before they reach a hospital.
Through the program, regional response teams will be able to pick up blood from Wexford and distribute it to various deployment areas. One of those areas is based in North Washington, Butler County, and can serve a four-county area, according to AHN Wexford staff.
Wesley Semple, manager of prehospital operations at Wexford, said this kind of program will have the biggest impact in rural areas distant from hospitals.
The prehospital blood program will also include the use of military-grade refrigeration units with enhanced temperature control to preserve the blood and avoid needless waste.
“It’s going to cut down on waste. That’s one of our main goals. This is going to be huge for these communities,” Semple said. “With it being at a premium, we don’t want to take more blood out of a hospital setting and waste it. We want to make sure it’s there.”
The program also comes at a time when blood supplies are in severe shortages. In July, the American Red Cross declared the second ever national blood supply crisis, threatening the availability of lifesaving blood for patients across the country.
“Blood is at a premium right now, in every community. You rely on people that donate. And you don’t always have tremendous access to blood. So being able to use it and keep it fresh for a long period of time, being able to not waste it, it’s critical,” Klapper said. “That then also affects the blood that’s available for hospitals, if you’re not burning through it in an ambulance situation.”
Between quicker access to type O blood and cutting down on waste, AHN officials say these efforts will save lives in an emergency situation where every second counts.
“It’s going help in terms of quality and safety for patients, and improve the ability to save lives. Say you have a patient who’s bleeding in the field, they can get blood, get transfused, and by the time you get to the hospital, they’re in much better condition than if you didn’t have those capabilities,” Klapper said.
