EMS World Expo 2018

"Ambulances: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow"
 
As we look into the future of the ambulance itself and where we are going, we must understand our past. Where did we start, how did we get here, and what does the future hold? Looking at evolutions in safety and patient care, does the unit you have today meet those needs? As you plan for your next ambulance, can what you are buying evolve to meet your needs in the future?

In this session, the audience will become familiar with some of the various ambulance standards that are currently being utilized in the design, performance and testing of new automotive ambulances. Along with being familiar with these ambulance standards, the audience will also get an overview of some of the processes that are used to develop and revise these standards in order to keep them current and to ensure that they address needs and demands of the end user as well as including science, research, and data into the requirements of the standards. What will also be gained by the audience is a general knowledge and understanding of where some of the ambulance standards differ and where they are similar.

Ambulance service providers are beginning to recognize the dangers associated with crashes involving vehicles in their fleet. Scientific research shows a dangerous trend: Ambulance crashes account for nearly 54% of the fatalities in EMS, and 58% of those occur during emergent responses. The costs associated with these events can cripple a business for years.  Beginning with a news investigative report, the presentation will take a controversial look at responding lights and siren from many different perspectives. The presenter will provide attendees with several different strategies to the following questions:   1.  Whose expectation is it that EMS respond emergently? 2.  Is the risk of responding lights and sirens outweighed by the benefit of a favorable clinical outcome   for the patient?  3.  How do we re-educate EMS stakeholders on the dangers of emergent response and the move toward less of these responses?

Provide Federal, State and Local agencies with an overview of the legislative and technical challenges and opportunities EMS agencies will face during the implementation of change notices 7, 8, 9 and 10 to the federal specification for ambulances for new purchases and remounts.  Discuss future changes to the specification to incorporate additional SAE standards and review the system by which 3rd party testing is used to validate that ambulances are built in accordance with the federal specification for ambulances.

In a world without true uniform national standards, it seems hard to believe that in this century there are many countries including the United States with no legislation regarding infant and child transportation while in an ambulance.  Around 6.2 million patient transport ambulance trips occur annually, of which nearly 10% of are children, most of whom are potentially being not effectively restrained during transport.  

Furthermore, insurance companies report that approximately 10,000 ambulances crash, resulting in injury or death each year, of which research suggest that up to 1,000 involve pediatric patients. Existing restraints such as car seats and other devices tighten into the child when used, potentially increasing exacerbation of an injury, with no universal standards available yet. Child Restraint Expert Mark Roberts looks at this problem head on, including changing new standards on the horizon, international case studies, new research and provides essential educational information for anyone in EMS community.