California Ambulance Eases Ride for Heavier Patients

From the outside, the new ambulance at American Medical Response looks like just another carrier in the Sacramento company's red, white and blue fleet.

But closer inspection reveals that "Unit 801," as it is called, is a special vehicle designed for obese patients, those weighing between 350 pounds and 1,000 pounds each.

"Transporting an obese patient is difficult, but this unit will make it easier for everybody," Jason Sorrick, a spokesman for American Medical Response, or AMR, said last week at the company's Fee Drive base near Cal Expo.

Emergency medical technicians no longer risk career-ending back injuries while lifting overweight patients, he said. And the patients themselves are at less peril of being injured while being transferred from home to hospital, or from clinic to clinic.

Before Unit 801 commenced service a month ago, the firm's EMTs needed extra help to place hefty patients in an ambulance.

"We're supposed to be physically fit, but there's only so much you can lift," paramedic Michael Martinez said, recalling the days when he would summon additional co-workers and firefighters to help carry extra-large patients.

After sliding an obese person out of bed and onto a tarp, up to a dozen people would have to carry the patient a step at a time, said Brian Kinney, an EMT-1.

"It would take an hour to 90 minutes just to get some obese patients out of the house to an ambulance," he said.

Patients unable to fit on a gurney would ride on the floor of the ambulance, making the trip uncomfortable.

Unit 801 -- officially, the bariatric ambulance -- has streamlined the process and made it more comfortable. Its wider, specially designed wheeled stretcher can be lowered to the height of a bed, allowing patients to be rolled over onto the gurney. Outside the house, the gurney is maneuvered to a 15-foot aluminum ramp behind the ambulance.

With the flick of a switch, the gurney smoothly goes up the ramp into the ambulance's holding area. It is pulled by a heavy wire attached to a winch near the driver's seat.

The "increased frequency of service requests for obese patients" that American Medical Response received during the past few years underlined the need for Unit 801, said Jennifer Bales, the company's local operations manager.

Though no statistics were available, she said, that demand reflected what some have called the increase in obesity and its attendant health problems.

Heavy patients have become so numerous that health care providers in Sacramento also "had requested that we provide this type of service," Sorrick said.

One making that request was Anthony Donaldson, the patient-mobility manager for Kaiser Permanente Medical Center, south Sacramento.

Before Unit 801, there were no bariatric ambulances in Sacramento County, Donaldson said.

As a result, he said, obese Kaiser patients at times had to be transported within the county in bariatric ambulances borrowed from American Medical Response's Stockton branch.

Donaldson, who helps ensure that all Kaiser patients are safely moved inside and outside of Kaiser facilities, said he first talked to AMR about activating a locally based bariatric rig two years ago.

"I'm just thrilled that all this work paid off," he said. "It's a safety thing for everyone, as far as trying to make sure everyone is moved safely."

Unit 801 is a "box-style" 2000 Ford ambulance recently converted into a bariatric carrier. Larger than most ambulances, the $250,000 unit has plenty of space to comfortably carry above-average-size patients.

Besides being safer, the 801 brings greater dignity to the transport of bariatric patients for no additional charge, Bales said.

While the 801 will respond to 911 calls, most of its services will be pre-arranged by area physicians. Unit 801 will serve Sacramento County. In some emergencies, it also may respond to neighboring counties, including Yolo and Placer.