Our hospital provides WB, RC and liquid plasma to 4 Air units, and to about 5 county EMS units in our state, We take care of it all. We receive the inventory from our supplier, we disposition it to the units, they transfuse (and ALL of them do) they then notify us to prepare them a new cooler, when they return the cooler in use, they include a signed Emergency Release form and we do the final disposition here. Our management traveled to the EMS sites when their blood programs are initiated to give them in person training. We also have set up power point presentations and online training for them that they are supposed to complete annually to maintain competency, The Flight Nurses and Paramedics follow the instruction of the ER docs to transfuse. Our program has saved countless lives over the last....?almost 10 years..... It's A LOT of work for the techs and crews involved - but so worth it.
of note: a few of our EMS crews have validated refrigerators on their units that they use in lieu of our coolers. this allows them to keep blood for a longer time period. if they use our coolers, they are validated for 3 days in the summer months and 4 days in the winter months, the date / time of return is on the cooler when it goes out and there is a downloadable temp monitor on the unit that they check a few times daily.