TCAD, CBCO partner on ambulance blood program

Last edited 12:34 p.m., June 16, 2026 [Editor's note: An incorrect organization name in the headline has been corrected.]

The Taney County Ambulance District and Community Blood Center of the Ozarks are partnering on an initiative that they say is a first in southwest Missouri.

TCAD Paramedics now operates a prehospital blood program within ambulances, according to a news release. Officials say TCAD Paramedics has become the first ambulance service in the region to carry and administer blood products.

The program launched June 1, according to the release. TCAD Paramedics administered blood products on two separate emergency calls.

“Providing blood products in the prehospital environment is a significant step forward for emergency medical care in our region,” said Johnathan Tudor, public information officer for TCAD Paramedics, in the release. “This program gives our paramedics another critical tool to improve patient outcomes during some of the most severe medical and traumatic emergencies we encounter.”

TCAD Paramedics will now be equipped with never frozen plasma and packed red blood cells. "Early blood administration has been proven to improve outcomes for patients suffering from severe trauma, hemorrhage and certain medical emergencies," officials said in the release.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration says on its Office of Emergency Medical Services website that prehospital blood transfusion is an important way to “save lives that would otherwise be lost in a motor vehicle crash.”

“The rapid expansion of prehospital blood transfusion programs at EMS agencies around the country is an important part of reducing the number of fatalities,” NHTSA officials say on the website.