State’s obesity rate forcing officials to get new equipment

NASHVILLE (AP) — The state’s high obesity rate is forcing emergency agencies and hospitals to get better equipment to care for obese patients, as well as prevent injury to those who care for them.

“When there’s an emergency, we need to get people to the hospital as quickly as possible,” said Steve Meador, deputy chief of Metro Emergency Medical Services. “With larger patients, sometimes we are on the scene for an hour or longer. We have to dismantle the stretcher to make room as well as call in extra personnel to help lift them. It’s not an ideal situation.”

About 23 percent of Americans are obese, according to recent data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Tennessee ranks fifth in the United States in obesity with a rate of 25.6 percent.

To accommodate such individuals, emergency agencies are creating “bariatric ambulances,” which involves adding a ramp and remote-controlled electric winch-and-pulley system to a normal ambulance.

The pulley system moves the stretcher up and down the ramp. The ambulances are outfitted with a wider stretcher that can hold as much as 1,600 pounds.

So far, the specialty ambulances have popped up in cities such as Phoenix, Seattle, Denver and Portland.

Pride Care Ambulance Service, a private company in Nashville, got one in November. Wilson County Emergency Management Agency acquired one in May, and Meador said Metro’s is expected to be on the road by Oct. 1.

“Like everyone else, these particular patients expect good health care,” Meador said. “They expect good emergency response. This new equipment will help us cut that time in half.”

Since Pride Care got its special ambulance, back injuries among employees have been cut in half, said operations director Brian Williams.

“We need to move our patients safely and comfortably and not injure our employees in the process,” he said. “This equipment is a way to do that.”

From double-wide beds to 1,000-pound lifts, local hospitals have also bought new gadgets to better handle obese patients and protect workers from injury.

Vanderbilt University Medical Center has invested more than $500,000 in the past year on such equipment. It has a variety of portable and mounted lifts that can do everything from turn patients over to move them from beds to wheelchairs and help them stand up.

A Vanderbilt study conducted in June shows that employees who used the equipment were 55 percent less likely to injure themselves, said Dr. Melanie Swift, medical director for Vanderbilt’s Occupational Health Clinic.

“The leading injury for nurses is muscular injuries from moving patients,” Swift said.