Product Code: 27EL-758-2035
Please note: This is a Single Viewer eCast registration for one participant for this eCast for both the live and on-demand version of this eCast. If you are interested in presenting this program to a group, please see the “eCast Registration Form– Group Viewing” form on the eCast program page.
Access instructions for the live eCast will be provided via email approximately 2-3 business days prior to the live program date. Access instructions for the on-demand version of this program will be provided via email approximately 3-10 business days after the live program has occurred and the on-demand version is available.
Program Description: Early access to blood products for patients in hemorrhagic shock improves survival, yet access to prehospital transfusion in the United States remains highly uneven. Many EMS agencies—particularly rural, non–hospital owned, and resource limited systems—face structural, regulatory, logistical, and financial barriers that limit their ability to provide blood in the prehospital setting, despite growing clinical evidence and the release of the AABB Standards for Emergency Prehospital and Scheduled Out of Hospital Transfusions.
This eCast will examine equity of access to prehospital transfusion as a patient safety and public health issue, with particular emphasis on the roles blood centers, hospitals, and EMS play in enabling equitable access across diverse systems. Blood centers contribute expertise in donor recruitment, product availability, inventory planning, logistics, quality, and distribution, while hospitals and EMS agencies may assume different clinical, operational, and oversight responsibilities. The program will explore how clearer expectations, collaborative planning, and defined communication pathways can support safe and sustainable implementation. Real world examples from multijurisdictional initiatives will be used to illustrate how blood centers, hospitals, and EMS agencies can collaboratively address “blood deserts” in communities, especially rural communities. These initiatives leverage geospatial analysis and regional blood sharing strategies to decrease time from injury to transfusion and expand availability of blood products in the prehospital phase of trauma care. Speakers will explore how geography, EMS governance models, funding structures, and regional trauma system design influence access to prehospital transfusion, and how blood center and hospital supported strategies can reduce these barriers while maintaining safety, quality, and compliance with AABB standards. Emphasis will be placed on scalable, sustainable approaches that strengthen coordination across systems of care, minimize waste, support data driven decision making, and reduce preventable deaths from hemorrhage without increasing operational burden.