Boca Raton Fire Rescue has reached a new milestone in its whole blood program, completing its first-ever whole blood exchange with Delray Medical Center. Through the new partnership, unused whole blood carried by Boca Raton’s crews can be exchanged with the hospital, cutting waste and keeping a steady supply of blood available for patients in the field.

Blood rotation agreements like this one are a key part of running a sustainable prehospital blood program. Whole blood has a limited shelf life, and returning units to a hospital before they expire means more of that blood is ultimately transfused rather than discarded. For EMS agencies, it also helps keep the units on board fresh and ready for the next emergency.

Boca Raton Fire Rescue stores its whole blood in Delta ICE 2L Smart Blood Coolers, which hold blood within its required storage temperatures in the field. The department uses BloodCOMM® Premium to monitor its blood inventory, giving crews and hospital partners a clear record of each unit’s storage history, the kind of documentation that supports a hospital’s confidence in accepting returned units.

Boca Raton Fire Rescue is also one of the agencies deploying the full Triad of Life, a coordinated approach from Delta Development Team, QinFlow, and LifeFlow designed to interrupt the Triad of Death (hypothermia, acidosis, and coagulopathy) in trauma patients. Alongside DDT’s blood storage and monitoring, QinFlow provides precise blood warming and LifeFlow enables rapid, hand-operated infusion, so blood reaches the patient safely, at the right temperature, and fast.

Congratulations to Boca Raton Fire Rescue and Delray Medical Center on this step forward for patient care in their community. To learn more about building a prehospital blood program, contact our team.