EMS World Expo: Implementing Stop the Bleed in Your Community

Uncontrolled bleeding is a major cause of preventable deaths. Approximately 40% of trauma-related deaths worldwide are due to bleeding or its consequences. Hemorrhage is the most common cause of preventable death in trauma.

Stop the Bleed is a national campaign to encourage bystanders to become trained, equipped, and empowered to help in a bleeding emergency before professional help arrives. It is a public-private partnership led by the Dept. of Defense and other stakeholders.

The Stop the Bleed campaign launched in 2015. Matthew Levy, DO, MSC, FACEP, FAEMS, NRP, chair of the Stop the Bleed Coalition, and Patrick O’Neil, executive director of the Stop the Bleed Project, provided updates and new resources for implementing Stop the Bleed Program during EMS World Expo 2022 in Orlando Oct. 14, 2022.

Training materials, equipment ordering, and other resources are available at www.stopthebleed.org  Levy offered the following steps for building a Stop the Bleed program in your community:

• Assemble a working group with stakeholders.
• Identify funding sources—individual kits cost $100; multipatient kits cost $500-$1000.
• Identify a deployment strategy. Gathering areas such as stadiums and schools, as well as industrial locations, are top areas for kits. Consider co-locating kits with AEDs and at police and security stations.
• Adopt a training program or curriculum such as ACS Stop the Bleed. Consider teaching bleeding control with hands-only CPR. Develop a training plan with instructors, equipment and facilities. Off-site training is often more effective due to minimizing distractions.
• Implement your program.

This is not just about active assailants, stressed Levy. In fact, while shootings and MCIs are in the public consciousness, most bleeding traumas result from individual accidents. A quick survey of Levy’s audience confirmed this fact, with multiple attendees sharing stories of tourniquet use on individuals following an accident while only one related that he was involved in an MCI.

O’Neil explained that Stop the Bleed licensing is available, both for training and products. The coalition website www.stopthebleedcoalition.org contains training resources, a club program for high schools and colleges, licensing program support, news and community collaboration.

Local, state and national legislatures are becoming more aware of the need for this training and equipment. California, as one example, recently enacted legislation requiring Stop the Bleed training in schools, said O’Neil. Grant programs and scholarships are available for training and kits.

In concluding the session, Levy provided the following takeaways:

• Overall the concept is widely well received
• It’s on everyone’s mind
• Make this training part of an “all hazards” program
• Be prepared to address issues of Good Samaritan laws
• Engage multiple stakeholders beyond the emergency services
• Engage schools early
• Prepare for a long-term deployment process; it can be difficult to fast-track agency-wide projects
• Have a project plan, share the plan and get buy-in
• A successful training program needs its own sub-plan
• Think about downstream costs, funding and replacements
• Have a plan for volunteers who want to help
• Getting the equipment is the easy part

While funding and other components of a rollout can take time, it shouldn’t be difficult to secure buy-in from community stakeholders, municipal groups and the public. “This is on everyone’s mind,” Levy said. “You can never stop training on this.”