ITHACA, N.Y.: With the numbers of overweight Americans continuing to increase, emergency services have been responding to more and more calls for obese patients. Bangs Ambulance, of Ithaca, New York has been investing in new equipment to make it easier to transport heavier patients, and safer for the Bang’s crew.
The Center for Disease Control says that over two-thirds of Americans are overweight, and those numbers are continuing to rise. Overweight people are at a higher risk of heart disease, and diabetes along with many other ailments. This increases the need for ambulances that can accommodate larger patients. Traditionally, bariatric stretchers have been used in these situations. President of Bangs Ambulance, Tim Bangs, said bariatric stretchers can hold up to 1600 pounds, but are strenuous on the emergency crew responding to the call. Bangs said it is much easier to use the new Stryker stretchers that Bangs Ambulance began using last year.
Stryker stretchers are not as wide as a bariatric stretcher and can only hold up to 750 pounds, but they can lift or lower a patient with the push of a button, Bangs explained. “This is historically a backbreaking job. (With a bariatric stretcher) You have to lift the entire stretcher, hold it up, and push it in while your partner guides it in the ambulance.”
Eddie Wilson, the New York – Pennsylvania Territory Manager for Stryker, said EMS is one of the three most injury – causing occupations. Wilson continued that these injuries are not caused by the occasional morbidly obese patient, but by the repeated lifting of the average patient. Since the average weight of American’s continues to rise, routine lifting becomes more strenuous. “Almost every one of my customers have dealt with a patient over 500 pounds, but the real problem is that the average weight for a patient now is around 230 pounds.” Wilson said.
Bangs Ambulance decided last year to purchase these new stretchers after the numbers of obese patients continued to increase.
“Before it would be pretty odd if we saw a patient that was 350 pounds. We would need to call an extra person to help us lift them. Now we’re starting to see 450 -500 pound patients regularly and a two-person crew can do that comfortably” Bangs said.
He continued by saying that the main problem now is getting patients out of their homes. Even though the new stretchers can help get patients into or out of an ambulance, it is sometimes much more difficult to move a patient outside.
One of the crew members for Bangs, Traci, said that although moving obese patients onto stretchers is a challenge, she has never had a big problem occur. “I’ve never experienced a problem trying to transport an obese patient. If we need an extra set of hands there are usually firemen at the scene or we can call down for additional resources.”
The new Stryker stretchers are about twice as expensive as a traditional stretcher. Bangs said they cost about $13,000 as opposed to a normal stretcher that would cost $6,000. The real payoff for ambulance companies is the reduced number of injured employees. Bangs said since they purchased these new stretchers, their number of workers compensation claims has dramatically decreased. “We pay upfront for the stretchers, but they pay for themselves in the end” he said.
Eddie Wilson said that Stryker’s goal is to reduce the number of injuries to EMS workers. “If we can remove the repetition of lifting heavy patients over-and-over, we can keep the emergency crews from straining their backs.”
The other benefit comes from sending a smaller crew to the scene. Bangs explained that even if a larger crew is needed for an obese patient, they don’t charge the patient extra. “Other people are starting to have a different class of billing for a bariatric patient. If you weigh more than 450-500 pounds and they need to send additional crew members, they will get billed more.” Bangs said. However, Ithaca is nowhere near adopting a policy like this. For now, the new stretchers allow a smaller crew to be sent to the scene, and therefore less money is spent.
