Emergency care in Bella Vista will become safer and more comfortable with the grant-funded purchase of power-operated cots and loaders for the city's ambulances.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency awarded a $229,400 grant to the Bella Vista Fire Department to purchase the high-tech cots and loaders.
Web Watch
For more information about the Bella Vista Fire Department, visit: www.bellavistaar.go….
Fire Chief Steve Sims said the power loaders will lift up to 700 pounds.
"The side rails fold out to give more comfort to larger patients," he said.
The Fire Department also runs the city's ambulance service, and the grant will enable the department to purchase power cots and loaders for all six of the city's ambulances, Sims said.
The ambulances are now equipped with manual cots that paramedics must lift with their own strength, Sims said.
"That's a lot of wear and tear on the back and the legs," Sims said.
There's risk when lifting a patient into an ambulance, although paramedics are highly trained, Sims said.
"There's a little bit more unsteadiness when you do that, so you risk the chance of a patient turning over," he said. "With the power cots, the guys will not manually lift a cot. When they get the cot to an ambulance, with the power loaders they will be able to connect the cot to a loader and the loader will self-load that cot into an ambulance."
The power cot and loader work together to keep patients secure, said Fire Capt. Gairy Osburn.
"There's an arm on the power loads that secures the cot," Osburn said. "It's on a track and on a system, and the cot goes where it's supposed to be."
The cots and loaders also will reduce the wear and tear on paramedics, said Cassi Lapp, the city's communication manager.
"A lot of their worker compensation injuries come from lifting a patient loaded cot," she said
Osburn agrees lifting patients in manual cots is a primary cause of paramedic injury.
"We're lifting 100- to 300-pound patients 3 to 3½ feet off the ground," Osburn said. "That repetitive motion has been proven to cause back injuries, and we're trying to reduce those."
Paramedics can lift patients with the push of a button with the power cots and loaders, Osburn said.
"It's a huge enhancement, not only as far as reducing injuries, but the safety of everyone involved," he said.
Ambulance services across the country are transitioning to power cots, and the Fire Department has been looking to obtain some since 2010, Sims said.
The Fire Department had a power cot around 2003-04, but there were many problems with it because the technology at that time was not adequate and the battery often failed, Sims said.
"They've made a lot of changes in the last 12 years on power cots," he said. "From what I'm hearing from people who use the cots currently, they have much better lifespan on the battery and much better transition motions than what they used to. When you push the button to go up, they go up a lot smoother than they used to."
The grant will pay for about 90 percent of the cost for the cots and loaders. The department will fund the other 10 percent, around $20,855, as well as money for sales tax, which will be about $18,600, Sims said.
The department used the last FEMA grant it got in 2011 to buy diesel exhaust extraction systems for two of the city's older fire stations. The city has four fire stations.
The ambulances will be equipped with the power cots and loaders around November, Sims said.
NW News on 08/22/2016