# Apparatus Maintenance



## keith10247 (May 2, 2007)

I was just curious what your station's policies are regarding washing and maintaining a clean ambulance.  We are getting our first out ambulance ready for a parade this friday and we have been spending a long long long long long long time for preparing.

It's funny....I forget how big the ambulance really is until I am washing it and towel drying it. I wish we were taking our chase buggy instead! :lol: 

What do you guys do for cleaning the apparatus?  How often do you do it?  What products do you like to use?


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## BossyCow (May 2, 2007)

We have a pretty detailed infection control policy which required everything that touched a patient to be disinfected after each call.  We wash down the patient compartment, the steering wheel, door handles (inside and out) 

It's amazing how many things we touch with dirty gloves on.  For an adventure sometime, have your local microbiology department run some cultures on surfaces inside your rig.  It's a huge eye opener, you will never put another pen in your mouth as long as you live!  

As far as the rest of the rig, we do equipment checks every week and clean it all out then.  There are always a few new vollies who are happy to come wash the equipment just for fun, by the time they get tired of it, there's usually a new crop.  We encourage it because it increases familiarity with the rig and what's on it.


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## Ridryder911 (May 2, 2007)

We wash our trucks routinely everyday or every other day dependent on weather. Inside is prn and every Saturday a detailed clean out. Each station has wash brushes and car soap. Usually, we attempt to meet at HQ and have a "group wash" to make it go faster and chew the fat....

R/r 911


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## MMiz (May 2, 2007)

Every truck is washed with a brush and soapy water at the end of a shift.  We have long brushes and a regular hose.  

The insides are rarely cleaned.  It's disgusting really.


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## keith10247 (May 3, 2007)

The end of each shift?!  aka twice a day?  that's crazy!  

I just ended day 3 of detailing this ambulance...  I am NOT a fan of water stained diamond plating. 

Anyone have any tricks for routine maintenance of diamond plating?    I'd love some advice as I have spent the evening polishing the diamond plating on the back bumper with a toothbrush along with 2 other people and mother's brand metal polisher...

Thanks for your replies!


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## keith10247 (May 3, 2007)

Oh yea, on a side note.... I finally got rid of the sterile generic ambulance disinfectant foam smell today!  Our chief normally staffs the ambulance and has spent years in it....she went in it today and the first thing she said was "Wow, it smells really good in here!"

I always hated the smell in there,  I switched to name brand Lysol disinfectant.  HUGE difference!  I was almost going to put a cheap pine tree air freshener inside there today for the parade/public walk-through coming up.  Glad I did not have to do that...only place to really hang one would be on the IV bag holder on the stretcher...would look odd if I forgot to take it off before we ran a call


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## Canoeman (Jun 2, 2007)

*Cleaning*

Keith,

I guess I would wonder why your ambulance is not parade ready at any time. Impress your patient and the family with your vehicle each and every day - day in and day out. Attitude about pristine ambulances is taught at the organizational level - if your are spending a great deal of time cleaning - everyone should re-evaluate the cleaning routine regardless of what it is. The clean ambulance is one of the first things people notice about a service. A daily easy routine or the once over after each and every call is the way to go. I always tell my partners and staff that they should treat their ambulances like their underwear - wash and change daily or especially when they get soiled. A week or a month is just to long for smelly underwear.


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## Raf (Jun 2, 2007)

MMiz said:


> Every truck is washed with a brush and soapy water at the end of a shift.  We have long brushes and a regular hose.
> 
> The insides are rarely cleaned.  It's disgusting really.



We wash the outside of our trucks with brush and soapy water at the end of every shift as well. Windows and chrome are towel dried.

Inside is sweeped out with damp towels. All our trucks are very, very clean and well maintained.


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## Flight-LP (Jun 2, 2007)

My biggest pet peeve (other than sheer incompetence), is an unsanitary truck. There is absolutely no excuse pulling up on a scene with a filthy truck, especially on the inside. Would you want your loved one being treated and transported inside a petri dish?????? The interior should be disinfected and sterilized after EVERY call and the exterior washed every day. Granted we can't control the outside elements, but to not wash the truck for days on end or even weeks is in my mind a disregard of policy and sheer laziness. In other words, you would not work for me for very long...............


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## GaEMT (Jun 6, 2007)

We don't wash them.   Our service has little fairies that come in at night and was and stock the trucks for us.      AHHHHH  the luxuries of life!


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## cw15321 (Jun 6, 2007)

I worked for a service that was very busy, but on the inside the trucks had to always look like the begining of the shift.  Some of the hospitals would have a bucket of cleaning fluid and a mop to help us out.  But there was always the case such as flying someone where we had worked a pt but never went to the ER, so we carried some wipes and stole a lot of towels from the ER to clean the back.  The outside had to be washed with soap on the outside no matter what they looked like at the end of each shift.  As for being ready for a parade we never did that.


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## BossyCow (Jun 6, 2007)

Our local hospital infection control supervisor will come out and culture the back of the ambulance for us.  It's a real eye opener and seems to improve the cleanliness for about the next 6 months or so.  As soon as we see the level start to drop, we call for another culture.  

Make friends with your local microbiologist.  It's a sure way to guarantee new cleaning protocols.


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## mfrjason (Jun 12, 2007)

When it comes to washing the ambulance it gets done after every call,unless its raining out,which then it would just get put back in the bay. The ambulance and fire department work together well so they split the cost of a power washer that was bought to be used to wash the ambulance,fire apparatus, the bay doors,and also the hoses when they pull them off the trucks. Some guys used it to even wash their POVs.


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## Meursault (Aug 29, 2007)

I haven't seen any cultures done, but my private company keeps a box of alcohol/disinfectant wipes in the back of every truck, and they're used after every call. They're convenient and effective. I found myself wiping the ceiling off at one point, actually.

The outside of the ambulance gets attention whenever our fleet maintenance guy yells at us. That occurs a lot more often than you might think.


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## babygirl2882 (Aug 30, 2007)

BossyCow said:


> We have a pretty detailed infection control policy which required everything that touched a patient to be disinfected after each call.  We wash down the patient compartment, the steering wheel, door handles (inside and out)
> 
> It's amazing how many things we touch with dirty gloves on.  F


Ya on my last ride along they had me wipe down all of the surfaces that are touched by gloves and it was icky! And they do it everyday!!

I know that for my station each ambulance is done all of the time...at least twice a week (only because they aren't out ALL of the time) and if there is a really dirty call (like a unpaved road) they get washed sooner. The thing that aren't used often (like the firetrucks are washed probably once a week or so (they are used even more less than the ambulances))



GaEMT said:


> We don't wash them.   Our service has little fairies that come in at night and was and stock the trucks for us.      AHHHHH  the luxuries of life!



Holy cow...where do you work???? Thats AWESOME!


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## PArescueEMT (Aug 30, 2007)

washing goes down every weekend... the wonders of community service people

inside we keep clean by mopping the floor after every call and wiping down the stretcher with germicidal wipes.

Parade prep goes on and takes the ambulance to clean to the enth degree. We put armor all an every surface (yes that includes the bench seat... no radio comments Jon) and so far, we have come in as the 2nd best appearing apparatus in the STATE (and that includes the fire trucks) we are trying for 1st place this year with 3 weeks to parade. The truck is last out and cleaning started today. Look out Monroe Township EMS!!!


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## rgnoon (Aug 30, 2007)

PArescueEMT said:


> We put armor all an every surface (yes that includes the bench seat... no radio comments Jon)



So if you slam on the breaks, how far can you launch a medic?


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## Airwaygoddess (Aug 30, 2007)

rgnoon said:


> So if you slam on the breaks, how far can you launch a medic?



Hence the sign, "STAY BACK 300 FEET!"


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## rgnoon (Aug 30, 2007)

I like that idea even better....leave the back doors open and put the pedal to the metal. Leave em on the pavement behind you.


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## medicdan (Aug 30, 2007)

We clean the exterior of our bus just about every other day. The fire trucks somehow get extremely dirty extremely fast and we end up cleaning them fairly often. When we have the hose and brushes out we inevitably grab at least two of the cop-cars (usually the chief's) and the ambulance. 

In terms of interior, after every call where blood/guts are exposed (that includes those where we get a line) we clean the cot with germacidal wipes and mop the floor. About once a week, we give all door knobs and bars a good cleaning and all cabinet doors. About every six months, everything is taken out of the ambulance, all cabinets cleaned and everything replaced. 

We have a new ambulance on order and it is expected in Mid-November. With that said, we are only patching the ambulance up long enough to make it to the new one.


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## Jon (Aug 31, 2007)

rgnoon said:


> Quote:
> Originally Posted by *PArescueEMT*
> 
> 
> ...


 
This is a subject near and dear to my heart... I was once... or twice... launched out of an airway chair due to a combination of Armor All + No Seat belt + sharp turn.

And as for the radio... I believe Zak is referring to that glorious day we cleaned our truck when we were working together... and he accidentally armor-all'd the radio mic PTT switch... we couldn't key up the radio at first because our thumbs kept on sliding off.:blush:


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## Grady_emt (Aug 31, 2007)

GaEMT said:


> We don't wash them.   Our service has little fairies that come in at night and was and stock the trucks for us.      AHHHHH  the luxuries of life!



Indeed, we may possibly work at the same place.  The "fairies" are our Logistics staff and are responsible for washing the exterior of the units, stocking the cabinets, checking all fluids and lights etc.  With the number of trucks we have had OOS for several weeks, some of the units have gotten quite grungy with Diesel Dust since they dont stop running long enough for them to be washed. 

As for the inside, there are the commercial disenfectant wipes or spray bottles of Virex and towels for cleaning the trucks.  After every call I wipe the stretcher down at least, and any additional contaminated surfaces.  Also, as we are breaking the truck down at the end of the shift, I try to wipe down all the contact surfaces (bench, capt seat, handles, cab door edges, monitor front) as well as pull the stretcher out and completely clean the floor.  The floor usually comes out pretty nasty.


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## PArescueEMT (Sep 6, 2007)

Jon said:


> as for the radio... I believe Zak is referring to that glorious day we cleaned our truck when we were working together... and he accidentally armor-all'd the radio mic PTT switch... we couldn't key up the radio at first because our thumbs kept on sliding off.:



right... when i launched the radio across the truck and nailed you in the head.


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