TULSA, Okla. (July 1, 2024) – Patients who suffer traumatic injuries in Tulsa will now be able to receive a lifesaving medical intervention because of a partnership between EMSA, Our Blood Institute, the Office of the Medical Director, Saint Francis Health System, and Tulsa Fire Department.
Beginning in July 2024, EMSA Field Operations Supervisors in EMSA’s Tulsa service area will begin carrying and administering Type O whole blood in the field. Supervisors will rendezvous with EMSA crews treating the most serious trauma patients to administer whole blood.
“For folks that are losing critical amounts of blood, being able to replace that blood prior to hospital arrival is absolutely lifesaving,” said Dr. Jeffrey Goodloe, EMS System of Metropolitan Oklahoma City and Tulsa Chief Medical Officer.
Type O whole blood provides all blood components of red blood cells, platelets, and plasma and is also formulated to be administered before a patient arrives at the hospital. Due to its clotting factors, it can slow bleeding to give a patient a better chance of surviving their transport to the hospital.
EMSA Field Operations Supervisors in the Oklahoma City area have been giving patients Type O whole blood for more than a year and it has already impacted dozens of lives.
Units of whole blood at OBI
“There are only a handful of EMS systems across the country that administer whole blood in the field and EMSA is extremely proud to be one of those agencies. We’ve seen the success of whole blood administration in our Oklahoma City system and bringing this protocol to Tulsa next month will provide patients in the Tulsa area improved and potentially lifesaving interventions that were not available to our clinicians before,” said Johna Easley, President & CEO of EMSA. “We’re proud to be part of an EMS system that continues to seek out clinical advancements and it gives our patients the best chance for positive outcomes but primarily that allows our supervisors, our paramedics, and our EMTs across the system the necessary tools to save lives of our community and the patients that are trusted in our care.”
In the Oklahoma City area, EMSA has administered whole blood to 58 patients who suffered a traumatic injury and were losing blood quickly. 34 of those patients survived and were eventually discharged from the hospital.
“Being able to literally add decades of life back to someone so that they can continue to be a husband, a wife, a mother, a father, it’s so important,” Dr. Goodloe said.