(KFF Health News) The Montana State Trauma Care Committee have created the Montana Interfacility Blood Network, which they say is the first program of its kind in the U.S.
The network allows ambulance crews to pick up blood from hospitals and transfuse it to patients on the way to the advanced care they need, which they say is particularly pertinent in rural communities of Montana.
The network is aimed at rural patients, who face elevated rates of traumatic injuries and death according to the National Institute of Health.
Ambulances may also pick up a paramedic or nurse to provide the transfusion along the way, since many rural ambulance crews are staffed by emergency medical technicians, who, in Montana, aren’t authorized to do so.
