Low Top Sprinter Type II

[EpiEMS]

I love this idea - a low-top Type II! Sorry for posting a trade rag, but this plug for Osage is actually pretty sensible. They're proposing using a low-top Sprinter body for a Type II ambulance, a la this one from Norway:

That'll take some serious getting used to, but boy, it'll be easier to handle!

 

[NysEms2117]

I love this idea - a low-top Type II! Sorry for posting a trade rag, but this plug for Osage is actually pretty sensible. They're proposing using a low-top Sprinter body for a Type II ambulance, a la this one from Norway:

That'll take some serious getting used to, but boy, it'll be easier to handle!

I like the idea, but my only concern would be, what if i'm a particularly tall fellow??(not me but my paramedic partner is 6'4)

 

[NomadicMedic]

You don't stand in the truck. All patient care is done from a chair, where the medic sits, belted.

It's about time we do this. The lack of safety in ambulance construction is almost criminal.

 

[EpiEMS]

what if i'm a particularly tall fellow??(not me but my paramedic partner is 6'4)

As @NomadicMedic said, sitting is where we ought to be. I'd be hard pressed to think of something I'd need to do standing up (assuming all proper equipment was available and protocols were reasonable - i.e. no transporting arrests of cardiac origin until ROSC).

 

[NysEms2117]

I understand the goal is to be sitting. and it should be.. However i'm also realistic. While I 100% agree with you @NomadicMedic, I don't see it. It should be that way, but at this time it's not. For me at least.

 

[NomadicMedic]

Right, because you haven't worked in an ambulance where you can sit the entire time.
I got a chance to see one a couple years ago when at an EMS convention, and loved it. Everything was built around the paramedic seat. Everything was within easy arms reach and you could manage the entire patient while still wearing a safety harness. It was awesome

Yet, we still ride to calls in plywood boxes, not seatbelted, sitting sideways on bench seats, standing up and walking around the back of the box… It's madness.

On June 17 a few years back, one of the Sussex County paramedics was killed in a horrific ambulance wreck. And I specifically remember it was June 17, because it was my birthday. So every year, on my birthday I am reminded of ambulance safety and how I need to look out for me

I am one of the few medics I know that wears a seatbelt more than not and I hate having to get up and move around the box.

 

[TransportJockey]

I shared this on facebook a while back. I like the idea. I've seen European setups on the inside and I love them. They're actually setup similar to rotor patient care areas

 

[akflightmedic]

11 year ago, but here is an ambo/rapid response vehichle from Amsterdam....and I threw in my first sighting of a "smart car".
The ambo is staffed with a doctor and nurse and before any naysayers jump in, the process to become an ambulance nurse in AMS will blow you away. It takes many years of education and then several years of specialized experience to be an ambo nurse.

As for the car, the owner 4 floors up saw me looking at it, so he unlocked it for me and said climb in!!! LOL

 

[EpiEMS]

I am one of the few medics I know that wears a seatbelt more than not and I hate having to get up and move around the box.

I've yet to see a single medic riding in on my ambulance (ALS intercepts FTW) wear a seatbelt...not that a lap belt is great, it's at least *something*.

After transporting my first code, maybe four years back, doing CPR in the back - on the highway - while standing up, only for the ER doc to call the patient 5 minutes after we arrived, I did some research that, apparently, nobody else in my system had done. I quickly realized the futility of transporting arrests and the risk of not being belted in the back...

 

[cruiseforever]

My company is trying to make it's ambulances safer.
https://www.scribd.com/document/329997707/The-Rest-of-the-Story

 

[NomadicMedic]

This is why we need safer ambulances.

 

[GMCmedic]

I spent 6 months working out of AMRs gen 1 safety concept vehicle.


Swing and a miss

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[EpiEMS]

I spent 6 months working out of AMRs gen 1 safety concept vehicle.


Swing and a miss

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

What was safer about it?

 

[GMCmedic]

What was safer about it?

It had harnesses instead of lap/shoulder belts.


That was about it. It was extremely cramped, the back was blue and yellow, it was an overall POS

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[EpiEMS]

It had harnesses instead of lap/shoulder belts.


That was about it. It was extremely cramped, the back was blue and yellow, it was an overall POS

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

Ah, doesn't sound like much of an improvement over the status quo. Then again, my bench seats just have lap belts, so...

 

[GMCmedic]

Ah, doesn't sound like much of an improvement over the status quo. Then again, my bench seats just have lap belts, so...

It did have 2 buckets and a half bench seat. And the oxygen cyclinder was laid horizontal under the bench seat, with the valve at the rear of the truck and the tank pointed directly at the passenger seat. So yeah......

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[DesertMedic66]

You don't stand in the truck. All patient care is done from a chair, where the medic sits, belted.

It's about time we do this. The lack of safety in ambulance construction is almost criminal.

Unless I am running a call in a smart car or a Mini Cooper I am not going to be able to reach everything which is going to require me to stand up

 

[EpiEMS]

Unless I am running a call in a smart car or a Mini Cooper I am not going to be able to reach everything which is going to require me to stand up

Not necessarily - how much does one really need to grab at in transport? If you're managing the airway, that should be set before you move - and all that kind of vital ABC (+ radio) equipment ought to be within reach (i.e. BVM, defib...)

 

[DesertMedic66]

Not necessarily - how much does one really need to grab at in transport? If you're managing the airway, that should be set before you move - and all that kind of vital ABC (+ radio) equipment ought to be within reach (i.e. BVM, defib...)

The patient who starts to vomit during transport? The patient who crashes during transport? The patient who randomly starts seizing during transport? The patient who goes bat **** crazy during transport?

Inside of a normal sized type 2 ambulance the only thing I can reach while I have my seatbelt on if I am in the bench seat is anything that I have placed in the "gutter". The only way I can even have my monitor in arms reach is if I leave it unsecured at the very front of the bench seat.

If I sit in the jump seat/airway seat then I can reach 2 cabinets and the patients head but nothing else.

 

[EpiEMS]

The patient who starts to vomit during transport? The patient who crashes during transport? The patient who randomly starts seizing during transport? The patient who goes bat **** crazy during transport?

For those, if they're serious enough, your partner should be pulling over to help, no? For #1, most of the time - here is a vomit bag. For #2, unless it's status epilepticus, are we really going to do anything but monitor? For #3, fair enough - I don't usually transport psychs that are *that* unstable...

Inside of a normal sized type 2 ambulance the only thing I can reach while I have my seatbelt on if I am in the bench seat is anything that I have placed in the "gutter". The only way I can even have my monitor in arms reach is if I leave it unsecured at the very front of the bench seat.

If I sit in the jump seat/airway seat then I can reach 2 cabinets and the patients head but nothing else.

These are human factor engineering/design issues with Type IIs as they are right now - this isn't an issue (as much, anyway) abroad. Wouldn't you agree that it is optimal to be seated?