AUBURN - The five ambulance rigs making up the city of Auburn's ambulance services are riding with new portable electrocardiogram units.
Jennifer Meyers / The Citizen
Laura Martin-Reed, senior paramedic for Rural/Metro, uses a pulse oximeter component to measure a person's heart rate and percentage of oxygen in one's bloodstream during a demonstration of the Medtronic Lifepak 12 portable EKG machine on Tuesday.
Laura Martin-Reed, senior paramedic for Rural/Metro, uses a pulse oximeter component to measure a person's heart rate and percentage of oxygen in one's bloodstream during a demonstration of the Medtronic Lifepak 12 portable EKG machine on Tuesday.
The units have updated technology involving the units' electric-shock-giving defibrillators, electrocardiogram monitors and many other functions.
Many other ambulance services in the county already had this model, Medtronic's Lifepak 12 portable EKG machines. The Rural/Metro first responder staff are “thrilled” about getting the same technology, said Laura Martin-Reed, senior paramedic who's been with Rural/Metro for six years, during a demonstration Tuesday of the functions of new units.
“As soon as we get new toys, we get very excited,” Martin-Reed said.
Electrocardiogram technology has evolved from the first massive machines that had to be rolled through hospitals in carts, said Lon Fricano, the area manager for Rural/Metro. Eventually, technology developed to make portable the 3-D pictures the EKG displays of the body's electrical currents.
The Lifepak 12's predecessor, the Lifepak 10, was the realization of that development, the “workhorse of the industry,” Fricano said. Production of Lifepak 10 stopped four years ago and the model will only be serviced for two more years.
The Lifepak 12, first put on the market in 1999, is even better.
Rural/Metro was using Lifepak 10 in its rigs until the new Lifepak 12 machines were first delivered about three months ago. The $25,000 machines became fully operational this week with the final delivery of all the needed components.
Where the Lifepak 10 had only three leads to attach to a patient and monitor their heartbeats, the new machine has a 12-lead capacity that gives a more complete view of what is happening with a patient's cardiac system.
The mix of 12 spaghetti-like leads leaves a patient's chest feeling like it's covered with a quilt of electrodes coated with conductive gel, but it gives an overview of a patient's cardiac system that can pick up subtle problems in an abnormal sector of the heart that the Lifepak 10 would miss.
“That's why we can never have modern enough equipment,” Fricano said.
The Lifepak 12 has a more user-friendly screen that displays the view of three leads at a time, switchable among the total of 12 leads, while the Lifepak 10 could only display one lead at a time.
The packs also have an automated blood pressure cuff that can be set on a timer to take blood pressure, freeing the first responders for other tasks in the care of a critically injured patient.
“It can be very, very handy if handling a critical patient,” Martin-Reed said.
There is also a pulse oximeter component, which is a monitor placed on the tip of a finger, that measures heart rate and what percentage of oxygen a patient has in his or her bloodstream.
The defibrillator on this unit is biphasic, designed to send less electricity into a patient's body than the Lifepak 10's monophasic defibrillator.
The updated technology does not displace the need for educated human medical know-how, but it does help medics be more informed during initial patient care, Fricano said.
With better monitoring capacities of the Lifepak 12, Rural/Metro might get to the stage where medics will be able to determine right in the field whether a patient should go to Auburn Memorial Hospital or a hospital with more involved cardiac capabilities, Fricano said.
“The machine doesn't do everything,” Fricano said. “We still have to be smart.”
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
Many other ambulance services in the county already had this model, Medtronic's Lifepak 12 portable EKG machines. The Rural/Metro first responder staff are “thrilled” about getting the same technology, said Laura Martin-Reed, senior paramedic who's been with Rural/Metro for six years, during a demonstration Tuesday of the functions of new units.
“As soon as we get new toys, we get very excited,” Martin-Reed said.
Electrocardiogram technology has evolved from the first massive machines that had to be rolled through hospitals in carts, said Lon Fricano, the area manager for Rural/Metro. Eventually, technology developed to make portable the 3-D pictures the EKG displays of the body's electrical currents.
The Lifepak 12's predecessor, the Lifepak 10, was the realization of that development, the “workhorse of the industry,” Fricano said. Production of Lifepak 10 stopped four years ago and the model will only be serviced for two more years.
The Lifepak 12, first put on the market in 1999, is even better.
Rural/Metro was using Lifepak 10 in its rigs until the new Lifepak 12 machines were first delivered about three months ago. The $25,000 machines became fully operational this week with the final delivery of all the needed components.
Where the Lifepak 10 had only three leads to attach to a patient and monitor their heartbeats, the new machine has a 12-lead capacity that gives a more complete view of what is happening with a patient's cardiac system.
The mix of 12 spaghetti-like leads leaves a patient's chest feeling like it's covered with a quilt of electrodes coated with conductive gel, but it gives an overview of a patient's cardiac system that can pick up subtle problems in an abnormal sector of the heart that the Lifepak 10 would miss.
“That's why we can never have modern enough equipment,” Fricano said.
The Lifepak 12 has a more user-friendly screen that displays the view of three leads at a time, switchable among the total of 12 leads, while the Lifepak 10 could only display one lead at a time.
The packs also have an automated blood pressure cuff that can be set on a timer to take blood pressure, freeing the first responders for other tasks in the care of a critically injured patient.
“It can be very, very handy if handling a critical patient,” Martin-Reed said.
There is also a pulse oximeter component, which is a monitor placed on the tip of a finger, that measures heart rate and what percentage of oxygen a patient has in his or her bloodstream.
The defibrillator on this unit is biphasic, designed to send less electricity into a patient's body than the Lifepak 10's monophasic defibrillator.
The updated technology does not displace the need for educated human medical know-how, but it does help medics be more informed during initial patient care, Fricano said.
With better monitoring capacities of the Lifepak 12, Rural/Metro might get to the stage where medics will be able to determine right in the field whether a patient should go to Auburn Memorial Hospital or a hospital with more involved cardiac capabilities, Fricano said.
“The machine doesn't do everything,” Fricano said. “We still have to be smart.”
Staff writer Amaris Elliott-Engel can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 282 or at amaris.elliot-engel@lee.net
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