Spooky Season Lab Facts Part 3: Who You Gonna Call When You Need Blood?

Behind the scenes of Gunnison Valley Health’s Level IV Trauma Center is a small but highly skilled laboratory team operating a carefully managed blood bank that plays a critical role in emergency and trauma care right here in the Gunnison Valley.  

Our blood bank is staffed around the clock seven days a week by certified medical laboratory scientists to ensure blood products are available, properly stored, carefully monitored, and ready for use when seconds matter.  

The Lab Behind the Lifesaving Response  

Our blood bank maintains an on-site inventory of blood and plasma products. 

These products each serve an important purpose. Red blood cells help restore the oxygen-carrying capacity of the blood, while plasma and cryoprecipitate provide important clotting factors that can be needed when a patient has experienced significant blood loss.  

When a patient experiences severe blood loss, there is no time to waste. The laboratory works closely with the clinical care team to help ensure blood products can move quickly from the blood bank to the patient.  

How it Works 

That process involves much more than simply pulling a unit of blood from a refrigerator. Our laboratory team manages blood product inventory, monitors storage temperatures, performs crucial compatibility testing, prepares products for transfusions, maintains emergency blood supplies, and follows strict procedures designed to protect patients and ensure blood products remain safe and effective.  

And our blood bank's capabilities don't stop at the hospital doors.  

In 2019, Gunnison Valley Health became the first ground EMS agency in Colorado authorized to carry and administer blood products in the field. This capability allows specially equipped EMS crews to begin transfusion therapy for certain critically bleeding patients before they reach the hospital.  

For a patient experiencing life-threatening blood loss, that time can be incredibly important.  

The laboratory supports this program by maintaining the blood products and specialized equipment needed for safe transport and use outside the hospital. Temperature-controlled coolers help maintain appropriate conditions while blood is transported by EMS, allowing these life-saving resources to travel with our paramedics throughout the Gunnison Valley and surrounding areas.  

So, while Halloween might be the season for spooky stories about blood, there is nothing scary about what our laboratory team does with it.  

Every unit is carefully managed. Every temperature is monitored. Every transfusion is supported by a team of professionals working behind the scenes.  

Because when a critically injured patient needs blood, our goal isn't to make the blood disappear…  

It's to make sure it gets where it needs to go.