EMS Equipment

Cardiac Monitors

Paramedic units are equipped with cardiac monitors capable of reading the heart’s electrical currents as well as providing electric shocks to a heart that has stopped pumping blood. The monitors also have external pacemaker capabilities, will monitor blood pressures, blood oxygen saturations and exhaled carbon dioxide levels.

Power-Load Cots & Stair Chairs

Early in 2013 a Stryker® Power-Load™ cot fastening system was installed with the arrival of our latest ambulance, Medic 381. The system supports the weight of the stretcher and patient while the Firefighter/Paramedics load and unload the cot into the ambulance.

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The system is rated to lift a maximum of 700 pounds, this rating accounting for the weight of the cot, patient and all other portable medical equipment which is utilized during treatment. By supporting this weight the system is designed to improve patient as well as user safety. For patients, a potential “drop” is nearly eliminated. And for the users, a decrease on repeated spinal loading will drastically reduce the potential for a back injury. The department plans to outfit other ambulances in the fleet in the near future.

Each ambulance is also equipped with a folding “stair chair” for ease of moving patients up and down flights of stairs. This piece of equipment can also double as a second stretcher when needed.

Backboards

Patients involved in a fall or a motor vehicle accident are placed on a backboard, along with a neck brace and head immobilizer. This equipment is used to prevent further injuries to the neck or spine and is frequently used as a precaution until a patient can undergo an x-ray at the hospital to rule out a spinal injury.

Smaller backboards are carried to immobilize pediatric patients.