Emergency Prehospital Whole Blood Administration Program

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2023

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue (PBCFR) is constantly researching ways to be at the forefront of prehospital care. On July 6th, 2022, PBCFR introduced a “Whole Blood” program to treat critically injured trauma patients. The program leveraged collaboration with the Health Care District (HCD), both of our local trauma centers (St. Mary’s and Delray) OneBlood, and the Department of Health (DOH). All parties involved had the same goal of improving the survivability of patients suffering from a traumatic injury. The Whole Blood program allows PBCFR to administer whole blood to patients at their point of injury, allowing immediate intervention. Since the start date till April 3rd, 2022, PBCFR has treated 45 patients with prehospital whole blood. Interestingly, patients that did not suffer traumatic arrest secondary to their injuries (29 of 45) had a 90% survival rate. PBCFR continues to analyze each case with our local trauma centers with hopes of continued increased survivability and further expansion of the program.