Are you providing EMS service safely? Increasingly, public and private EMS and ambulance services are focused on reducing the risk of injury to their staff and their patients. Providing patient care that’s safe, fast, and effective has always been the concern of EMS providers, but with the average weight of individuals in our population rising and the constant threat of litigation, there are new challenges mixed into the equation. Reducing risk minimizes situations that may cause injury to staff and patients and can reduce the financial and legal liability of a provider. The total goal is to increase safety.
Ferno offers 4 ambulance cot solutions to reduce your risk in the field and increase safety: The POWERFlexx Powered Cot, The PROFlexX X-Frame Cot, The 93P PROFlexx H-Frame Cot, and the all new 28Z PROflexx Chair-Cot. Learn more at www.ferno.com.
IDENTIFYING YOUR RISK
Transferring and transporting a patient during a service call provides the greatest opportunity for injury. Operators can be injured while bending or lifting and patients can be injured from undesired movements. Some risk of injury is inherent to the nature of providing EMS service, while other risks are presented by the geography of the service area, the nature of the patients served, and the protocols used to provide service. To reduce risk, it’s important to identify the unique risk factors you face and which tools will best reduce that risk.
Key risk factors include:
Geographic Risk Factors
• Identify the common types of terrain and structures in your service area:
• Is terrain flat, hilly, or mountainous?
• Are rolling surfaces typically paved, gravel, off-road, or other surfaces?
• Are structures hi-rise, multi-story, or single-floor?
• What obstacles exist, such as tight hallways, narrow doorways, steep stairs, elevators, embankments, etc.?
Patient Risk Factors
• Identify common situations you find yourself in when making a patient call:
• Are patients usually alert, oriented, combative, or unconscious?
• Do you frequently provide Advanced Life Support measures such as CPR?
• Do you service a high percentage of obese patients?
Operational Risk Factors
• Identify common operational environments and HOW you provide EMS service in them:
• Do you operate in controlled environments such as hospitals and nursing homes or on-scene environments that may include traffic and onlookers?
• Do you frequently operate at night and/or with limited on-scene visibility?
• Are you operating with limited crews?
• Are additional crews available when needed for heavy patients?
Ask yourself what additional risk factors exist?
REDUCING RISK
Once you have identified the unique risk factors for your service, you can identify the equipment and tools that will best help you reduce your risk. With any piece of equipment, it’s important to consider the product’s overall stability, durability, safety, dependability, and available features. Specifically, ask yourself what environments a piece of equipment was designed for and which of those environments matches your set of risk factors.
TO REDUCE INHERENT PATIENT TRANSPORT RISKS, CONSIDER THE FOLLOWING OPTIONS:
X-frame Cot: General Use Environments
Manual X-frame cots, such as the Ferno PROFlexX, are the most common cots in use. These PROFlexX is safe, easy to operate and provides maximum stability when rolling over surfaces and transferring patients. This cot also includes the widest range of features, options, and accessories to accommodate different size operators and patients.
Power Cot: General Use-Bariatric Environments
Powered X-frame cots, such as the Ferno POWERFlexx, combine the benefits of an X-frame cot with a powered lift. Without lift assistance, operators can raise and lower up to 700 lbs at the push of a button. This allows just one crew of operators to respond to almost any size patient with a reduced chance of operator injury.
H-Frame Cot: General Use Environments
Manual H-frame cots, such as the Ferno 93P PROFlexx, have a range of features, options, and accessories similar to the X-frame cots. Many services prefer the undercarriage of an 93P, which allows “one-man” unloading and unloading of an empty cot and allows both operators to hold the weight at the foot-end when loading and unloading a cot with a patient.
Chair Cot: Difficult Structure Environments
The new Ferno 28Z PROFlexx Chair Cot provides maximum versatility in any environment with structures that are difficult to navigate. The cot’s light weight, stability, load capacity, and ability to go from chair to cot without transferring the patient, make it an ideal solution for environments with narrow hallways, small elevators, and awkward stairways, where services need maneuverability and flexibility.
To learn more about these cots, as well as a full range of available accessories, visit www.ferno.com or call 877-733-0911