Ambulance power cots in use
The Fire Department’s new power cots arrived a week ago, and by the weekend the cots were in service.
“It’s pretty exciting to have them here, helps the guys out,” said Capt. Gairy Osburn. “They increase our lifting capacity by 100 pounds.”
This, along with the cots’ fivepoint harnesses and ability to widen, helps a lot with larger patients, he said, and improves safety for patients and EMS personnel alike.
It can also help prevent back injuries, which he said account for roughly half the injuries that EMS personnel receive. And of that half, roughly half are the result of lifting a patient.
“If we can reduce back injuries
by half,” Osburn said, “we can prevent a lot of career-ending injuries.”
The black and yellow cots, made by Stryker, are battery-operated. The end of the cot can be loaded by placing it onto the edge of the ambulance and pushing a button to retract the legs. Once the legs are retracted, the cot can be pushed in.
“It’s a great product — they’re impressive,” said Logan Cruse, a representative for Stryker.
By contrast, older-style cots would need to be manually folded flat, meaning one emergency worker would need to support it while the other lifted the legs off the ground and locked them into place.
The cots also have a space for an oxygen tank built into the headrest, and can be widened to accommodate larger patients by simply opening the side rails.
Cruse said that this saves the department from carrying a separate piece of equipment to carry a larger patient.
The cots, Cruse said, also have a steering lock system that will increase stability and reduces the likelihood of tipping.
“It basically turns it into a front-wheel drive,” he said.
Osburn said the cots are part of a larger project that will include lifts on the ambulances themselves. With these in place, ambulance crews will be able to load patients weighing up to 700 pounds with the push of a few button presses.
The lifts, he said, are arriving behind schedule, but he intends to have them on-hand and in use in December.
The whole system, which includes the lifts and cots for all six of the department’s ambulances, cost just under $250,000, he said, though the city’s portion was roughly $37,000. The bulk of the cost, he said, was covered by a federal Assistance to Firefighters Grant.
The grant, according to FEMA’s website, has been given out since 2001 to help fire and EMS services get needed equipment, vehicles, training and other resources.
These systems have a service life of 10-15 years, he said, and will probably outlast the ambulances they’re going to be used on.
“It will be a great asset to the department for many years,” Osburn said.