On Monday, December 16, 2024, the Quality and Productivity Commission (QPC) awarded the County of Los Angeles Fire Department (LACoFD) a $380,000 Productivity Investment Fund (PIF) grant for the Department’s Development and Rapid Operationalization of Prehospital Blood (LA-DROP) pilot project.
The awarded PIF grant funding will be utilized to purchase the equipment and blood products necessary to launch LA-DROP, a prehospital blood transfusion (PHBT) program to save the lives of hemorrhaging patients in the field. Currently, the only infusion that LACoFD paramedics can give to hemorrhaging patients in the field is salt water, but patients do not bleed salt water. They bleed red blood cells, plasma, and platelets. Blood transfusions have been the standard of care for patients in hemorrhagic shock in the hospitals for nearly 100 years, but the technology to bring this lifesaving treatment to civilian, prehospital settings has only existed for the last five to ten years.
Since San Antonio Fire Department pioneered the use of prehospital whole blood, more than 150 large emergency medical services provider agencies have incorporated PHBT into their protocols. And, just recently, the Corona Fire Department recently unveiled their new PHBT.
The LACoFD will partner with the Department of Health Services, at Harbor-UCLA Medical Center, to launch the Department’s PHBT program with paramedic units in three battalions. While trauma affects everyone, statistically, severe trauma and postpartum hemorrhage disproportionately affects underserved, low income, and minority communities. This is especially true of penetrating trauma. So, while a prehospital blood transfusion program can and will impact everyone, those at greatest risk, who stand to benefit the most from such a program, will be socioeconomically disadvantaged and minority communities.
Every EMS system is different, and the Department will need to learn the necessary choreography of receiving blood products, storing them properly, and then using them or rotating them back to hospital partners for use in hospitalized patients. The LACoFD is extremely hopeful to learn these lessons rapidly and then expand and scale this program across Los Angeles County.
The LACoFD expresses its gratitude to the QPC for supporting the Department’s many projects and endeavors throughout the years, and to Dr. Clayton Kazan, Medical Director, for putting forth this innovative proposal.
