By Chris Barber
Contributing Writer

Medic 94, the medical emergency room on wheels that responds to serious life-threatening medical conditions in 17 southern Chester County municipalities, has added the delivery and application of blood transfusions to its services.

Medic 94 is dispatched with advanced life support facilities, skills and protocols for injuries and sudden illnesses that require more on-site and complex care than the basic life support ambulances provide.

Medic 94 has been in operation for 42 years—41 of them working out of the former Jennersville Hospital campus in Penn Township.

They moved to their new building at Jenners Pond Road along Baltimore Pike on Nov. 18, 2024.

Executive Director Bob Hotchkiss said he is especially proud to announce the addition of Medic 94’s new blood program.

It is the only mobile unit in the region that has it, he said.

Under the management of Director of Operations Matt Collins, the blood program gives patients who have serious bleeding situations a much greater hope of survival than those who do not receive a transfusion.

Collins said he has been seriously interested in the program since he became aware through his emergency response training that transfusions given to patients suffering from blood loss often save their lives.

The statistics on donation bear this out, he said. “For every minute of delay when a patient is losing and in need of blood, there is a 2 percent increase in the chances that the patient will die within 30 days,” he explained.

And if that patient is sitting trapped in a car for the better part of an hour that dismantling takes before they can be reached, or if travel without blood requires travel to a far distant hospital, those dangerous chances increase because of the time that elapses.

That’s why the blood program is making a difference, he said.

The setup for establishing a blood donation facility on wheels is a complex challenge that Collins has apparently been up to.

The first challenge was getting the staff trained. The staff of Medic 94 are paramedics, which means that they have been trained to be basic life support officers as well as advanced life support technicians with more advanced skills. In addition, they must go through the course of identification of need and application for the blood.

Collins has established that training program at Medic 94.

The next challenge is obtaining and storing the blood.

Since blood has only 42 days between donation and application, it has to be stored in specially built refrigerators. The temperature has to be maintained at between about 39 and 43 degrees Fahrenheit.

It must be monitored constantly, and alarms go off if the temperature goes beyond safe points in either direction.

There is also the need to outfit the Medic 94 with blood vehicles so it is ready to go with a call.

Collins displayed an insulated backpack device packed with a pint of blood that is so well insulated it can safely contain that blood for 72 hours. This pack has slots in the sides that are like frozen trays which are inserted to maintain the coolness. They are replaced periodically.

Additionally, there is the challenge in planning what to do if some of the blood on hand nears its 42-day life and is not used.

Medic 94 buys the product from Blood Bank of Delmarva. Collins said if they still have an excessive supply at the end of 30 days, the blood bank will buy some of it back for use immediately at hospitals.  

These new blood services at Medic 94 have been in operation since last May.

Collins said they have responded with the blood eight times since June 2024, and “(A)t least one or two would have been dead without them,” he said.

The new blood program of Medic 94 is situated in their new building.

With the closure of Jennersville Hospital during the COVID-19 pandemic, the future at that site for Medic 94 was in doubt.

Responding to that situation, CEO Bob Hotchkiss, his board of directors, and the Penn Township Board of Supervisors set out to investigate creating a building of their own. Their efforts succeeded and on Nov. 18, 2024, after working with donors and municipalities, Medic 94 moved into its new building. It is known formally as the Southern Chester County Emergency Operations Center. It sits on land adjacent to Jenners Pond Road at 863 West Baltimore Pike in Penn Township, and its meeting room serves as a resource for public use as well as for the Medic 94 staff.

This $2.5 million building benefitted from widespread gifts and grants, as well as the advocacy by State Rep. John Lawrence and Penn Township, Hotchkiss said.

The public will be invited to tour the new building during an open house hosted by Penn Township on May 17.