Mecklenburg EMS can now count on new heart monitors for when seconds matter most
Dozens of ambulances in Mecklenburg County have received major upgrades: new, high-tech heart monitors.
“It’s like going from an iPhone 4 to an iPhone 13,” Drew Williams, a crew chief for Mecklenburg EMS Agency, told The Charlotte Observer.
Medic’s new monitors expedite communication from paramedics to hospitals, and they have video devices for telemedicine. After 10 years, the previous monitors were due for an upgrade. Their hardware and cables were breaking down, and the supplying company stopped making replacements for some parts.
The new devices were dispatched on May 17.
After a year testing different devices, Medic settled on a monitor made by European company Tempus.
Mecklenburg County, which subsidizes Medic, spent $3.9 million on 97 monitors, and all 65 of Medic’s advanced life support ambulances will be equipped with the devices.
Each monitor uses a 4G cellular signal to connect to the cloud, allowing hospitals to receive electrocardiograms, or EKGs, within two seconds.
“Everybody gets it at the same time, almost like a group text, if you will,” Williams said.
In 2021, Medic responded to about 1,030 adult non-traumatic cardiac arrests, agency spokesperson Grace Nelson said. The old monitors contained three devices that had to connect via Bluetooth or Wi-Fi, and go through a “chunky process” to communicate with hospitals, Williams said. Paramedics would send the same EKG four times and hospitals would either get one or none of the transmissions.
The new devices have a video screen and a built-in camera, which will facilitate telemedicine with doctors at hospitals and minimize unnecessary transportation. The monitors also can hook up to an ultrasound device that can be displayed on the screen.
Paramedics spent several months in training sessions for the new devices, which are 50% lighter than the original ones and contain touchscreens. The monitor consists of two devices: one monitors blood pressure, pulse oximetry, and electrocardiograms. A smaller device is used only in cases of cardiac arrest or electrical therapy like defibrillation, cardioversion, and pacing used in CPR.
When turned on, both devices connect and share information automatically.
“The monitor has a lot of potential for the future,” Williams said. “So we didn’t just buy a monitor that’s gonna give us what we have for the next 10 years. It opens up the doors to further our clinicians to be clinicians and not just technicians.”
As clinicians, paramedics can do more than just answer 911 calls, put people in “the truck,” and take them to the hospital, Williams said. They can ensure that each second, they’re attending to the patient with high-quality care and real-time communication with hospitals.
The same monitors have also been adopted by departments in Elizabeth City and Stanly County.
This story was originally published June 22, 2022 at 12:00 AM.
%20Cropped.jpg)