Holly O’Byrne: A Framework for Developing and Managing Prehospital Blood Programs
Holly O’Byrne, Lieutenant at DC Fire and EMS Department, shared a post on LinkedIn about a recent article she and her colleagues co-authored, published in BMJ Journals, adding:
“Running a prehospital blood program is easy… said no one, ever.
You need to manage blood products, cold chain, inventory, rotations, recalls, documentation, training, competencies, equipment, QA/QI, hospital relationships, regulatory requirements, data, policies, logistics, and the occasional 2 a.m. temperature alarm and phone calls.
For those of us who coordinate these programs, we know that getting blood to the patient is often the simplest part.
Building and maintaining everything behind that transfusion is where the real work happens.
That is one reason I’m so excited to see this work published.
I’m incredibly grateful to my fellow authors, especially those who are also in the trenches building and running prehospital blood programs, for taking what we have collectively learned, including the successes, headaches, and lessons learned, and putting it into something that can hopefully make the process a little easier for the next program.
No agency should have to reinvent the wheel.
Hopefully, this guide gives new and developing programs a better place to start, helps established programs identify opportunities to strengthen what they already have, and maybe saves a few future coordinators from learning everything the hard way.
Because the patient may only see a bag of blood, but there is an entire program, and a whole lot of work, behind getting that bag safely to their side.”
Title: Prehospital Blood Transfusion Coalition: framework for EMS Blood Program Coordinator responsibilities
Authors: Holly O’Byrne, Jon Krohmer, Randall Schaefer, Eric A Bank, John B Holcomb, William J Bullock, Ronnie L Hill, Matthew Levy
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