# Stryker Powerload



## JShoreEMT

Does anyone use the Stryker Power Load system?

Once it is available in the US, I'd like to purchase it for my EMT squad. I'd just like some reviews first. I want to know the good, the bad, and the ugly about this system! Any reviews?


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## Joe

All I've heard is that it is really expensive. And I don't want to be around when the battery goes dead. We have they power gurneys and there awesome!


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## Johnnycage17

The main problems, as mentioned, is the cost of the Stryker cot and the battery issue.
My question is if one person can operate it, like Ferno 28 cot.


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## EMSLaw

The apparatus for lifting the stretcher is hard-wired into the ambulance, and has a backup battery, so it won't go dead like stretcher batteries will.  And it induction charges the stretcher battery, so that won't be as much of a problem anymore, either.  

However... They are very expensive.  I think I heard $40K+.  Now, if they could invent something to help me lift the patient /on to/ the stretcher, I'd be screaming that it's money well spent.  But I'm not so sure here.


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## Hunter

they looks aazing, I hate the cureent powerpros we us, they're much heavier and a pain in the *** sometimes.


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## Handsome Robb

Hunter said:


> they looks aazing, I hate the cureent powerpros we us, they're much heavier and a pain in the *** sometimes.



Why does everyone say they are so heavy? They aren't that heavy... 

And everyone *****es about the battery life. I've never had a batter die on me. 

Like I said in the other thread, the powerload looks cool. My question was how does it work on uneven areas such as hills or a sideways slope?


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## JShoreEMT

So does anyone use this?


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## shfd739

The Stryker tech told me this week that there is supposed to be in use in this area. Once he finds out I want to go see it in action.


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## Handsome Robb

JShoreEMT said:


> So does anyone use this?



So did you read the thread?

Apparently not.


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## RESQGUY

First let me say I haven't been on the job that long. With that being said I do not care for the power gurneys. They are heavy and clumbersome. I like a good old fashioned X frame. I do not see the need for a power gurney on 911 responses. I work in the city of San Diego and there is never a shortage of personel @ scene to assist to PT movement. As far as working BLS and doing gurney runs all day, proper lifting techniques and communication with your partner are gonna save your back. IMO the most "back" dangerous part of BLS is "sheeting" from bed to gurney or vise versa. Although there are lift teams and slide boards.  In closing my little soapbox session I would like to say the way things are going with lifting systems and powercots us EMS folks will soon be the ones getting hauled of to the ER for obesity and the already too common life of poor diet and lack of exercise from the busy shifts we all work.


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## Trezmaniandevil

*I have seen these used*

I was just wondering about the weight of these cots and lift systems.  Adding on additional weight going up and down stairs makes me think that we have to balance the benefits to the back injuries.


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## emt6207

The ALS service I clinical'ed at used these cot's and they worked great, they aren't as heavy as they look but probably heavier then normal cot's. The only thing with them is they eat through batteries kinda fast. For stairs and things though the EMS has the chair lifts they use instead of using the cots to go up and down the stairs, or they hand-carry on backboards to the cot at the bottom  depending on the situation.


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## Handsome Robb

Trezmaniandevil said:


> I was just wondering about the weight of these cots and lift systems.  Adding on additional weight going up and down stairs makes me think that we have to balance the benefits to the back injuries.



You shouldn't be carrying your cot up or down stairs, there's other tools available to us to overcome obstacles like stairs. 

I don't remember the number my company said they saved annually since the power cots on workers comp claims related to lifting injuries but it was a pretty decent number.

There are lots of threads on this subject. Check out the "how do you load patients into the ambulance thread"


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## Ewok Jerky

They are at least 50lbs heavier, this years models even more I think.

We usually have to two-point in an out of the rig due to the increase in weight. To be honest I miss the old ones.


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## Tigger

NVRob said:


> You shouldn't be carrying your cot up or down stairs, there's other tools available to us to overcome obstacles like stairs.
> 
> I don't remember the number my company said they saved annually since the power cots on workers comp claims related to lifting injuries but it was a pretty decent number.
> 
> There are lots of threads on this subject. Check out the "how do you load patients into the ambulance thread"


Glad you said it this time, I'm going nuts with all the talk about how much of a pain it is to carry the power cots up the stairs. NEWS FLASH: the lightest cot out there is 75 pounds, why would anyone carry it up stairs?!?!


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## Hunter

NVRob said:


> Why does everyone say they are so heavy? They aren't that heavy...
> 
> And everyone *****es about the battery life. I've never had a batter die on me.
> 
> Like I said in the other thread, the powerload looks cool. My question was how does it work on uneven areas such as hills or a sideways slope?



Because they are heavy, they're at least 20-30lb heavier add the problem with obesity in this country and I dont wanna turn a 260lb pt into a 290lb patient while I wait the extra 5 seconds for the wheels to come up(YEah it's only 5 seconds but I after your 6th call after barely working 10 hours the work adds up. I've never had a battery die on me either so I can't really complain about that, some of our trucks carry a charger so yeah...


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## Tigger

Hunter said:


> Because they are heavy, they're at least 20-30lb heavier add the problem with obesity in this country and I dont wanna turn a 260lb pt into a 290lb patient while I wait the extra 5 seconds for the wheels to come up(YEah it's only 5 seconds but I after your 6th call after barely working 10 hours the work adds up. I've never had a battery die on me either so I can't really complain about that, some of our trucks carry a charger so yeah...



If you have an X-frame stretcher it's going to take at least 2 seconds for your partner to get the wheels up, if not more. And while you can't avoid that lift, when you're lifting the patient up and down to load height (for the ambulance) and offload height (at your destination), you don't need to lift at all.


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## traumaluv2011

The issues I see with it are costs and maintenance issues. It doesn't seem like a complicated system but say something breaks. The ambulance is down and needs to be repaired. Just my thoughts. 

Save money for something useful like new monitors, a new ambulance to replace that 15 year old rig that has squeaky brakes or what not. If you need help lifting a patient, request for additional resources. That should be done in your scene size up so by the time you are ready to move, you will have the resources.


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## Tigger

traumaluv2011 said:


> The issues I see with it are costs and maintenance issues. It doesn't seem like a complicated system but say something breaks. The ambulance is down and needs to be repaired. Just my thoughts.
> 
> Save money for something useful like new monitors, a new ambulance to replace that 15 year old rig that has squeaky brakes or what not. If you need help lifting a patient, request for additional resources. That should be done in your scene size up so by the time you are ready to move, you will have the resources.



The first point is a consideration no doubt. However this system could save a service thousands in workman's comp bills alone. Not everyone needs monitors either, I have to shake my head when I see BLS services with a 30k cardiac monitor being used to take BPs and Sp02 readings. Anything that we can do to lessen the number of injuries to EMS providers needs to be considered.

Plus I always seem to leave my special glasses that tell me how much a patient weighs in the truck on calls. More than a few times I've realized that I've needed a lift assist only after the patient has been packaged, it's getting them into the truck that is often the biggest hurdle.


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## polisciaggie

We've had them at my service for about two years now and they are amazing!  They definitely weigh more than the non-power strykers so running out of battery would suck.  However, it flashes a big red light for a couple of uses before it totally dies and I've never had one die on me yet.


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## b2dragun

The batteries for the power gurneys are lasting 3-5 calls after using them for coming on 2 years.  As for the added weight of our pts and gurneys...maybe the problem is more with fitness of EMS.  I personally love the power gurneys, anything to avoid having to continually adjust the gurnet, plus you can do it on the fly.


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## Tigger

b2dragun said:


> The batteries for the power gurneys are lasting 3-5 calls after using them for coming on 2 years.  As for the added weight of our pts and gurneys...maybe the problem is more with fitness of EMS.  I personally love the power gurneys, anything to avoid having to continually adjust the gurnet, plus you can do it on the fly.



Are these the same batteries from when it was new? It might be time for new batteries, they do wear down eventually. As I'm sure you know they're just cordless drill batteries and they have a set number of cycles before they run out of useful life.


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## b2dragun

Stryker actually gave us different batteries, they aren't the Dewalt ones.  Stryker is replacing them because they aren't lasting as stated.


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## Tigger

b2dragun said:


> Stryker actually gave us different batteries, they aren't the Dewalt ones.  Stryker is replacing them because they aren't lasting as stated.



Well at least you're getting new ones, for free I should hope.


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## medicnick83

Never ever seen this... not in Cape Town.

I doubt we or anyone in Cape Town (EMS) uses this, I can imagine how much these type of devices must be to 'service' or 'look after'


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## crazycajun

The power load system is approx 20K. We have them budgeted for this year. If you have to buy the stretcher with the system the cost is approx 35K per unit. The average workers comp claim for a back injury suffered on the job in 911 EMS is somewhere around 250K. So if your service has let's say 7 units and you buy the complete system for 245K and save one workers comp claim then they have paid for themselves. As for batteries the biggest problem is charging them before they have cycled down. We have found that by "shorting" the battery before charging removes the cell memory and allows for a full charge.


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## Handsome Robb

medicnick83 said:


> Never ever seen this... not in Cape Town.
> 
> I doubt we or anyone in Cape Town (EMS) uses this, I can imagine how much these type of devices must be to 'service' or 'look after'



I've never had a problem with them. Never heard anything at my agency about difficulty servicing them either.

I've run 12 hour shifts where we transported 12-15 patients without the battery dying on me. I still love them. I've said it before, they aren't that heavy.


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## Thirdact

*Newby*

I'm currently looking at buying a small company that markets a Bariatric Ramp and Winch system for loading and unloading patients. The cost is a fraction of what has been discussed on this thread, takes up minimal space is assembles in about a minute. I'm not in the EMT world yet and would love to get some feedback on this and how the Power Load will impact my business moving forward.

It is a very small niche business but I would be putting my life saving on the line to purchase.

Thank you in advance your your input and honesty.


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## BioMedMedic

Hunter said:


> Because they are heavy, they're at least 20-30lb heavier add the problem with obesity in this country and I dont wanna turn a 260lb pt into a 290lb patient while I wait the extra 5 seconds for the wheels to come up(YEah it's only 5 seconds but I after your 6th call after barely working 10 hours the work adds up. I've never had a battery die on me either so I can't really complain about that, some of our trucks carry a charger so yeah...



Your thinking is flawed.  You don't turn a 260lb pt. into a 290lb pt, you turn them into a 0lb pt.  If you're lifting your cot that much that 30lbs makes that much of a difference you're doing it wrong.  As for waiting the 5 seconds, well you've now turned that 290lb pt. into a 145lb pt. because you can use both you and your partner to load the cot.  Waiting 5 secs (and it's less than 5) holding 145lbs beats holding 260 for any amount of time.


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## EMTSTUDENT25

I would love for my biggest worry to be battery life.  The last 8 months weve been using ferno's from like 1980. Lifting 300 plus patients gets real old after the 5th or 6th call.  Just seems like even with the extra weight of the power cots, it would be worth it.  Also, did someone say that there are battery chargers on "some" trucks?? You would think that with battery life being an issue there would be chargers on every truck no?


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## WestMetroMedic

Sorry to resurrect something older...

My service used to have the reputation that "everyone has a good last walk" and since we switched to the PowerPro beds 5 years ago, the bed comes out of the truck more than it ever has and back injuries are non existent.  Needless to say, I am a fan and total convert.

Now to the issue at hand,  my service just replaced 18 of our ambulances with 23 Road Rescue UltraMedic trucks bringing our fleet to 27 total transport vehicles.  With this fleet addition, we anticipated the PowerLoad technology and made sure that the floors of our new vehicles were reinforced to support the stresses of this product, which needs to be assessed by your Stryker rep.

The cost of this product is immense, and we are still trying to figure out how to justify it to our hospital, and perhaps back injury reduction is a good route to go down, but just that will not justify spending nearly a million dollars on this product.  The wonderfully litigious nature of American society is our other best friend.  if that little catch bar becomes disabled by an errant oxygen tubing or dragging bed buckle, the patient could potentially be injured in the fall and in this wonderful world of tort law, you could easily be on three hook for over a million dollars.


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## Amberlamps916

That's pretty steep.


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## sirengirl

Addrobo87 said:


> That's pretty steep.



The amount of money we are spending on this is crazy.... Sorry to necro an older thread, but I was blown away by this. I have been out of my volunteer base for the past 8 months working on medic school, so imagine my amazement when I came back and found this. Please note that you don't actually have to lift up the stretcher to load it, that was my force of habit. You can actually lock it into the powerloader and use the - button to have it load itself if it is locked correctly into position. 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wo1eYToXrL0[/YOUTUBE]
You may have to open the link in a new window to watch it, when I view it, it is white-out and hard to see...

This youtube video shows a seamless loading and unloading as demonstrated by some brothers across the pond, and with their stretcher folded up you can see a bit of the swing arm lifting up and taking the stretcher with it. 

[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yuwx3VAK7EE[/YOUTUBE]
Again, you may have to open the link in a new window to watch it...

I will preface my post by clarifying that my unit is entirely volunteer, in an extremely geriatric community, and in fact the average age of our EMT, driver, and first responder volunteers is usually over 60. Therefore something like this was seen as a sound investment for us- we have 4 operating ambulances, 2 running at a time, and currently have 3 of these powerload units, 1 of which is installed to date. So far they have been recieving rave reviews from the crews, and everyone that I asked today loves them. I personally think it's the coolest thing I've seen in a while, as now I, weighing barely over 100 pounds, can lift and load a patient who weighs up to 300 (that is what I was told the weight limit is on the winch). In fact I was so skeptical, I did a weight test on it (granted it's not as though I max out the weight...)







From what I can tell lifting it compared to the powered stretchers that the county uses, there is negligable weight difference that I notice. The difference is in the latches in the rig and the hydraulic arm (the "grab bars") that actualy go under the stretcher and lift from the underneath. I was wondering what we should do if toned out to someone who's over the 300lb limit (that I was told) but I forgot to ask. I was also told that on the underside of the horzontal housing unit that runs along the bottom of the rig floor, there are buttons, one is a power button, there are up/down buttons, and then there's a button on it that has a picture that looks similar to the swing arms of the grab bars that lift the stretcher. I was told this is used to maneuver the stretcher up and down if, say, you were parked on a hill or steep driveway. 

My one and only gripe thusfar (other than cost of course) is that when you are loading it you want to keep a hand on it to control the speed of loading, or else it will slam itself into the ambulance, and I imagine the speed of loading will increase with the weight of a patient on it.


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## Handsome Robb

Geez you're shorter than I though siren 

That's pretty cool though.


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## DPM

I'm with Trigger on this one. It's a terrible was of resources to have to call another crew just to lift someone. Likewise, if the stretcher breaks then you replace the stretcher, it doesn't make the whole ambulance un-usable. I'm site they'd have spares, and if not, I'd keep a few of the old manual ones just in case. And If the batteries are bad, carry spares or carry a charger.

It's not about saving time. It's about mitigating risk. A tool is available to help us lift patients, I see no reason not to use it.


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## CTMedic1

*Stryker Powerload capabilities*

The powerload has a rated lift capacity of 840 lbs with a working rating of 700 lbs. (stretcher and attachment rated at 140).

Never in my wildest imagination would I think of loading a 700 pound patient without at least one Engine Company to assist. We are slated to place our first powerload in service in a week. I'll let you know how it goes.


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## medic417

Been using one for a while now and it is a back saver.  And if it fails for any reason just like all strykers powercots you still can use it manually.  We require all personnel to use it as it works then we disable so they have to unload and load without the power assist.  Well worth the money.


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## WestMetroMedic

In case anyone wants to know what $1,000,000 worth of PowerLOAD's looks like...

Installs start this week...


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## WestMetroMedic

This is a pretty comprehensive demo of the PowerLOAD system that was done for our service.  It's 10 minutes long, but worth the watch if you have unanswered questions about it.


[YOUTUBE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aov_QI8H5SU[/YOUTUBE]


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## pa132399

my als service is housed in a bls and transport company station. the bls and transports just got two of these things and by far they have to be the simplest thing ive ever used and we were shown how to troubleshoot a problem so the above post about it rendering the truck useless is incorrect if the system entirely failed you can still use it just like we are all used to by pushing the powerload all the way up towards the cab and using the latch. very nice system and will let you know what comes of them after it is used for awhile.


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## Bullets

Also, Stryker is all over these systems. If something goes wrong they come right out and fix it on the spot.

And if the electrical fails, you can still use it as a manually operated cot


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## Handsome Robb

Rumor has it we are getting a couple of these to test out and potentially outfitting the entire fleet. All hearsay though so I guess we will have to wait and see.


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