By Josh Davis
Baltimore Sun
PRINCESS ANNE, Md. — A grant-funded plan to put whole blood on Somerset County ambulances has run into local resistance, with county officials warning it could become another state-backed program that leaves local taxpayers holding the bag when the grant runs out.
Emergency medicine leaders say the county should not pass it up. Whole blood can replace severe blood loss in trauma patients before they reach a hospital — a potentially lifesaving tool in rural areas far from trauma centers. State officials say grant funding would cover the program for at least five years.
| READ NEXT: The economics of saving lives (and explaining it to your finance director)
Ronnie Hinman, president of the Somerset County Firefighters Association, urged commissioners not to adopt it at an April 28 County Commissioners meeting, citing long-term funding concerns.
“Every time I turn around, there’s new programs proposed that’s going to be implemented in this county that’s going to cost this county lots of money because Anne Arundel County does it — like whole blood,” he said. “Nobody else on the Shore is doing it, so we need to stay away from it, too.”
The grant is administered by the Maryland Institute for Emergency Medical Services Systems . MIEMSS Executive Director Dr. Ted Delbridge said 13 rural Maryland counties are taking advantage of whole blood grants, including most Eastern Shore counties.
But County Commissioner President Charles Laird said the county cannot afford another long-term, unfunded obligation.
“After that period of time is up … who’s going to foot the bill then?” Laird said.
Maryland State Police could bring whole blood to a crash scene within 15 to 20 minutes. Laird added: “They’ve reassured me that if they couldn’t fly it, they’d drive it.”
But emergency physicians say those minutes are exactly the point.
Maryland State Police began carrying whole blood on medevac helicopters in 2023, Dr. Matt Levy, a professor of emergency medicine at Johns Hopkins, said, “and it’s saved countless lives … but there is still this issue that occurs that has to do with the fact that it takes time for helicopter to get there.”
Bleeding remains the leading cause of preventable death, Levy said, and roughly 75% of those deaths happen before a patient reaches the hospital or within the first hour after arrival.
“We have to get that patient to the blood or the blood to the patient. And EMS is the perfect delivery system to do that,” he said.
The MIEMSS grant money comes through the rural health transformation program under the One, Big, Beautiful Bill, Delbridge said. Maryland’s share is $160 million per year over five years. Somerset’s funding has already been allocated, he said.
“They epitomize the kind of place where whole blood can make a huge difference, because they’re rural; they’re far away from the closest trauma center. If a patient is injured in a car crash in southern Somerset County — even if it’s possible for a Maryland State Police helicopter to come to them — they are still a long way from trauma center, whereas EMS are there quickly,” he said.
Delbridge said he understands concerns about what happens after the grant runs out, but future grants or insurance reimbursement could help sustain the program.
“If I was the one writing the checks, I’d be thinking about how I’m going to pay for this in five years, but five years is a relatively long period of time, given the pace at which the science and the economics are moving,” Delbridge said. “And I wouldn’t let that stop me.”
©2026 Baltimore Sun.
Visit baltimoresun.com.
Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.