Richland Fire & Emergency Services in Washington has officially launched its Blood on Board prehospital transfusion program, putting whole blood within reach of patients long before they arrive at a hospital. The program went live in mid-October, making Richland the first fire-based EMS agency in Eastern Washington to carry blood into the field.

Under the program, blood is carried in the on-duty battalion chief’s vehicle and can be dispatched to any emergency involving significant blood loss. Richland stores its blood products in the APRU 6L Portable Blood Refrigerator, vehicle-mounted so the unit travels with the battalion chief and holds blood at safe storage temperatures throughout every shift. The department also uses BloodCOMM® Premium to monitor its blood inventory, giving crews and partners visibility into unit temperatures and status from storage to transfusion.

Blood products for the program are supplied through a partnership with the American Red Cross, and the department plans to host blood drives twice a year to support it. Community support has been strong from the start: a spring drive held in support of Blood on Board collected 144 units, the largest single-day blood drive in the state.

Richland Fire & Emergency Services is hosting its second blood drive on November 23 from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. at Richland Fire Station 74. Anyone in the area can register here to help keep blood on board for the next patient who needs it.

Congratulations to the Richland Fire & Emergency Services team on bringing this lifesaving capability to Eastern Washington. If your agency is exploring a prehospital blood program, contact our team to learn how the APRU 6L and BloodCOMM® can support it.