Florida Department of Health in Nassau County “Stop the Bleed Program”

Florida Department of Health
Contact: Jason Miller
Disaster Preparedness Planner
[email protected]
April 2, 2018 2:00 p.m.

Florida Department of Health (FDOH) Nassau County partnered with the Nassau County School District (NCSD) and others to receive grant funding from the Northeast Florida Healthcare Coalition to purchase “Stop the Bleed” kits in 2017. The hemorrhage control tools in the kits are easy and effective methods of treating severe bleeding and preventing complications and death due to bleeding related to traumatic events.

Saturday, March 31, 2018 is National Stop the Bleed Day. As early as 2016, FDOH Nassau recognized that life threatening bleeding can occur from emergency situations in our communities every day. From vehicle crashes and incidents involving farming equipment or public transportation, to accidental injuries from natural disasters like tornadoes or inflicted injuries from intentional acts of violence like shootings and bombings, uncontrolled arterial bleeding can result in death within three minutes – even before emergency medical services or other emergency responders can arrive. These first minutes following a traumatic injury are crucial in saving a life. FDOH Nassau realized that help offered by bystanders can often make the difference between life and death. Previously the agency promoted public awareness of Hands-Only CPR and Automatic External Defibrillators (AED) use. By implementing Stop the Bleed, additional resources and training to the public became another effort to strengthen community capacity.

Stop the Bleed Training, conducted at Wildlight Elementary, Standing: Jason Miller, with FDOHNassau. Seated left is Heather Smith, right is Kim Griffith both with NCSB.

FDOH Nassau has placed a Stop the Bleed kit in every school in Nassau County, and trained a minimum of two people at each school on how to use the kit. Nassau County Public Schools are the only schools in the State of Florida to have a Bleeding Control program, kits in every school, and have personnel trained to provide this life saving immediate aid. As this program was grant funded, there was no cost to the citizens of Nassau County, other than staff training time.

According to Dr. Eugenia NgoSeidel, Health Department Director, “our local public health system has worked together to strengthen our skills and tools to be better prepared for emergency situations. We continue to encourage citizens to learn more about what they can do in medical emergencies until professional help arrives.”

According to the National Trauma Institute, a traumatic injury with a major loss of blood is responsible for over 35 percent of prehospital deaths and is also responsible for over 40 percent of deaths that occur with the first 24 hours of hospital admission. In response to these devastating statistics, the American College of Surgeons created the National Stop the Bleed awareness campaign which was launched by the White House in October of 2015. This program focuses on promoting community resiliency through first responder and citizen training on hemorrhage control. Additionally, placement of kits for hemorrhage control is a key pre-hospital strategy to reduce mortality. The goal is to make “Stop the Bleed” training as widespread as basic life support I.e. CardioPulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and to preposition hemorrhage control kits alongside Automatic External Defibrillators (AEDs) to facilitate use and early response. This strategy is especially important in a large semi-rural community with a limited number of EMS and law enforcement first responder units. By further increasing hemorrhage control capacity of law enforcement, school health personnel and selected citizens, there is great potential to save lives.

For more information on Stop the Bleed programs and FDOH Statewide efforts you can visit: http://www.floridahealth.gov/programs-and-services/emergency-preparednessand-response/prepare-yourself/stop-the-bleed.html.

About the Florida Department of Health
The department, nationally accredited by the Public Health Accreditation Board, works to protect, promote and improve the health of all people in Florida through integrated state, county and community efforts.

Follow us on Twitter at @HealthyFla and on Facebook. For more information about the Florida Department of Health please visit www.FloridaHealth.gov. More information about the Florida Department of Health in Nassau County visit www.nassau.floridahealth.gov/ or by calling the Florida Department of Health in Nassau County at 904-875-6100.