Ambulance of the Future

[JMooreHFE]

I'm currently working on a team with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to develop best practices in the design of patient compartments to ensure EMS and patient safety while supporting EMS performance in supplying patient care.

We'd like to speak to EMS workers to ensure the best practices that are being developed from this effort accurately address your needs in safely and effectively performing your job in an ambulance's patient compartment. If you would like to participant in discussion groups, interviews, and or surveys, please contact me.

Thanks for your time!

Jen Moore

Note: Input will directly shape the development of guidelines and help ensure they reflect EMS needs. Conversations will be kept confidential and will only help to inform our understanding of the challenges faced by EMS workers.

Edited August 23, 2011 by JMooreHFE

[crotchitymedic1986]

In the box, there should be no sharp corners on any of the compartments, everything should be heavily padded with rounded corners. There should be a 3-5 point restraint device for the medic, not a simple lap belt. All equipment and stretchers should have mounts that hold them in place during a 40+mph crash --- see Dr. Nadine Levick's ambulance crash videos. The box should not be spot welded together, and should not collapse in a rollover.

[BushyFromOz]

I suggest you talk to either Ambulance Victoria or New South Wales Ambulance Service in Australia. They have for the past 20 years had standards rearding the strength ratings required to dislodge equipment from mounting points, including the stretcher from its locking mechanism, roll over protection systems

[Quakefire]

I want a box I can stand up in (I'm six foot), and organizational system for supplies that allows for proper infection control, and an easy way to sterilize the box (ozone generator maybe?)

[Richard B the EMT]

Quakefire, while a box a six footer can stand in is nice, some areas need to keep the total vehicle hight down. Otherwise, you risk some roof damage going under highway overpasses. FDNY EMS ambulances stand no more than 9 foot tall, and 9 foot wide.

There is an underpass near the FDNY EMS station in Astoria, going under the Triboro/Robert F. Kennedy Bridge. One sign says 9 foot 6 inch clearance, but next to it, another one saying 8 foot six inch. As nobody wants to commit to which is correct, NO ambulances from Astoria station are allowed to attempt that underpass.