Pulaski County Emergency Medical Services is moving ahead with some equipment upgrades. The county commissioners Monday approved the purchase of a new power stretcher from Stryker at a cost of over $18,000.
EMS Director Brandon DeLorenzo said that while that’s a lot of money, it will be a big improvement from the department’s older stretchers. “They’re really starting to show their age,” he explained, “and we have patients that have picked up that exceed the weight that the older stretchers can handle.”
The commissioners also agreed to let DeLorenzo buy an automatic backup generator from Small’s Maintenance & Electrical for a total cost of about $9,300. “We have never had an emergency generator at our facility,” DeLorenzo said. “We have medications that need to be temperature-controlled. Thankfully, so far, in the time that I’ve been here, we’ve never had the power out long enough to where that’d be an issue. We have had issues with crews that are unable to get those tall garage doors open in a power outage.”
DeLorenzo said the fact that the Winamac ambulance garage has three-phase power added about $3,000 to the cost. He said the generator will be paid for with extra money in the building expansion project budget.
