New law aids Mercy Flight | Local News - The Livingston County News
A new state law allowing air ambulance services to carry their own blood products and provide transfusions to injured or ill patients is in effect and Mercy Flight Inc. said the result will be a help to the community.
“This will be a great benefit to the community we serve by being able to add one more valuable piece of life-saving care to those in need,” said Michael Gugliuzza, Mercy Flight director of medical operations. “Blood products are most beneficial for our severe trauma-related calls and can make a difference in the patient having a positive outcome.
Mercy Flight has one helicopter at each of its continuously operating bases in Batavia, Buffalo and Olean, Gugliuzza said Wednesday. The helicopters contain air ambulance services. Before the law went into effect, New York was the only state that did not allow air ambulance personnel to transfuse blood.
Before the law was passed and took effect this week, Mercy Flight would use other medical techniques in place of blood products. Gugliuzza said those techniques are very helpful but not necessarily as effective as blood products.
“We would use IV solutions along with some drugs to try and stabilize the patient the best we could for transport to the hospital,” he said.
State Sen. Patrick M. Gallivan, R-Elma said the law, which went into effect Tuesday, a “common-sense update to our public health law, which is long overdue.
“Allowing medical flight crews and EMS providers to transport and administer blood in an emergency could be the difference between life and death, especially for people living in rural areas far from a hospital,” Gallivan said. “I thank my colleagues in the Legislature for supporting it and the governor for signing it into law.”
Under the existing regulations, air ambulance services were not allowed to store, transport or administer blood products without written agreements with each hospital blood bank, which can be impractical. Also, the regulation only allows for transfusion during transport between hospitals.
Gugliuzza said Mercy Flight, along with other EMS agencies, had been trying for years to gain approval to carry blood products.
“Now that the law has passed, we will have to see what the requirements will be for carrying blood. We will be setting up agreements with blood suppliers as well as conducting required training for our medical crews,” he said. “As of now, I don’t have an exact timeline on when blood will actually be on the aircraft. There are many different blood products on the market and we will be evaluating what will be carried based on the law and any guidance from the Department of Health.”
The blood products would most often be used for trauma-related calls, Gugliuzza said.
“This law is specific to air ambulance service and does not apply to ground services. We will not be able to carry blood on our ground units,” he said.
Orleans County Emergency Management Deputy Director Justin Niederhofer said he was aware of the new law.
“Mercy Flight is the only air Ambulance that services Orleans County, the others are too far away and transport to a hospital can occur faster than what a helicopter could arrive on scene from the further destinations,” Niederhofer said.
Niederhofer said the new law will provide a resource to ground ambulance services.
“When time is critical and transporting by ground to a hospital may have a bad outcome for the patient if the blood transfusion is needed sooner, EMS on the ground can request the air ambulance to the scene to provide these services,” he said.
“This is a service that fortunately is not needed often, but when it is needed it’s critical and lives could be saved as a result.”
source: https://www.thelcn.com/news/local/new-law-aids-mercy-flight/article_ccac5073-1272-500f-a072-b496d358f7a7.html
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