The American College of Surgeons is urging more first responders to carry blood products in emergency vehicles to improve survival rates among patients with life-threatening bleeding.
Only about 1% of emergency medical vehicles — including ground and air ambulances — carry blood in the U.S. Instead, EMS teams often rely on crystalloid products, which are cheaper and easier to store but less effective and sometimes linked to fatal complications, The Washington Post reported Nov. 16.
For EMS teams that do carry blood, many shoulder the costs themselves, which can be especially prohibitive for rural and volunteer emergency services. Some state laws also prohibit EMS workers from administering blood in the field.
"About 10,000 lives a year could be saved if every ambulance in the United States had blood," John Holcomb, MD, a trauma surgeon and professor at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, said during an Oct. 21 news conference.
The ACS said boosting reimbursement for blood products and updating state laws could help increase access to prehospital blood administration.