Obese patients strain EMTs, health budgets

July 11, 2009 03:59 AM

By Sara Shepherd
The McClatchy/Tribune

INDEPENDENCE, Mo. — Ambulances are transporting more supersize patients than ever — several a day, including some as large as 800 pounds. And as the number of morbidly obese Americans goes up, emergency crews are straining their backs and budgets to get them to hospitals.

Creative solutions
Especially during a life-threatening emergency, the process requires not only brute strength but creativity on the fly.

Ambulance workers have enlisted brawny firefighters, makeshift pulleys, tarps, plywood and even a hydraulic-lift truck to get patients down stairs, through hallways, out of houses and on the road.

“There’s a surprise around every corner,” said Jeff Johnson of Johnson County Med-Act in Missouri. “If somebody’s life is on the line, we’ll do everything that we can to help that individual. But we also have to be very careful for our own safety.”

Specialized industry
Although specialty equipment is making the process easier for ambulance workers and more dignified for patients, the devices are expensive and still not widely used.

American Medical Response in Independence, Mo., is one of a relatively small number of ambulance providers nationwide to have a bariatric ambulance. (AMR’s headquarters is in Greenwood Village, Colo.)

The vehicle features a reinforced floor and shocks, a ramp and a motorized winch to pull a loaded gurney into the back. While AMR’s standard cots hold 450 pounds, the bariatric cot can support 850 pounds when extended or 1,600 pounds when lowered.

Costs soar
Spending on health care for obese American adults increased 82 percent from 2001 to 2006, according to a government report compiled by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality.

In 2001, expenditures for obese Americans totaled $167 billion compared with $303 billion in 2006. Costs for adults who were overweight rose 36 percent during that time period, while costs for normal-weight adults increased 25 percent.

Health-care expenditures for obese Americans accounted for 35 percent of all costs in 2006, the report noted. From 2001 to 2006, the number of obese Americans increased from 48 million to 59 million people. Obese people are more likely to suffer from several chronic health problems.