Pig Waller
2010-05-01 01:20:56 UTC
http://www.independentmail.com/news/2010/apr/30/heavy-lifting-medical-
first-responders-pay-price-h/
ANDERSON When MedShore Ambulance Service Lt. Travis Alewine gets out of
bed in the morning, his back pops, his knees creak and his shoulders ache.
He spends several minutes under a warm shower, allowing the heat to work
its way into his 6-foot, 200-pound frame.
Alewine lives in pain, but not because he played football or another
contact sport professionally.
He is a paramedic. He is not yet 30.
His pain is caused by one thing: regular, heavy lifting.
I sound like a walking time bomb in the mornings, Alewine said with a
grin. I visit the chiropractor every six months. Im dealing with a
hiatal hernia, too.
Alewine estimates that that nine out of 10 paramedics or emergency medical
technicians suffer from back, shoulder or neck injuries.
According to the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians,
there is no information available to show the rate of injury in
paradmedics and emergency medical technicians.
During a 24-hour shift, well pick up between 15 and 20 patients,
Alewine said. Of those, probably three or four are obese.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South
Carolinas obesity rate grew from less than 10 percent of the population
in 1984 to more than 30 percent as of 2008.
In Anderson County, where the South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control estimates that seven in 10 adults are overweight or
obese, the strain is not limited to the technicians and paramedics who run
the calls.
Medshore chief compliance officer Don McCown said restrictions on how much
weight a medical team can lift means additional teams are sent to assist
them.
Our own people are restricted by how much they can lift. Two technicians
can lift a combined 250 pounds, McCown said. When you start looking at
someone lifting 300, 400 or 500 pounds, we have to send additional teams,
which is an additional cost that we more than likely will not recover.
Helping a heavy patient onto a stretcher is just the beginning, McCown
said.
Girth is the real issue, he said. Once we have an obese patient on a
gurney, often we cant keep them on there.
He said the fee for transporting patients is not adjusted for a persons
weight.
Right now, there is no additional charge for transporting obese patients
even though it can cost us two or three times more. We cannot charge more.
It is considered discriminatory.
Refusing to respond to a call is not an option, McCown said.
The one thing we cannot do is refuse to treat or transport a patient. If
you call 911, we have to come and give you the option of going to the
hospital.
Medshore receives an average of 1,000 calls in Anderson County each week,
McCown said. Of those, about 800 are nonemergency calls.
With such a large population uninsured, their primary health care is the
emergency room and their primary transportation is the ambulance service.
They know if they call, we have to come.
EMT Heather Tumblin, 23, has been working at MedShore for a little over
two months.
She said she has been told to expect to be on the job for five or six
years before burning out or being forced out by physical problems.
Tumblin said she had been on two calls that day to transport patients who
required additional help to lift.
A man fell and his home-health nurse could not lift him, she said. He
weighed 375 pounds.
McCown said Medshore owns two bariatric ambulances, both which are in
Medshores Columbia location.
Wed like to add extended ramps and winches to all our ambulances, but at
about $1,400 to convert an ambulance, its something we cant do all at
once, he said.
He said hearing the word winch when discussing patients was unusual.
Its very strange for me to use the word winch after 33 years in this
business, but theres no doubt about it were dealing with a higher
percentage of the population that is obese, he said. Its commonplace
now.
Recently, Medshore financed about $500,000 to buy more than 30 bariatric
stretchers and stair chairs. Outfitted with battery-operated lifts, the
stretchers are rated to lift and hold 700 pounds, 250 pounds more than the
stretchers normally used.
Much like a dolly, stair chairs are used to move patients up and down long
flights of stairs.
McCown said the stretchers and stair chairs were purchased to better serve
customers and to protect employees.
Lifting patients puts tremendous stress on the human body one of our
biggest injuries is back injuries, McCown said. One employee had three
back injuries in a single year hes 41.
Medshore chief executive officer Greg Shore said the money MedShore
expects to save will be well worth the hefty price tag.
Purchasing the new equipment will more than pay for itself in the long-
run, he said. We will save on insurance premiums and hopefully on having
fewer lost-time injuries.
He said estimating the overall costs related to lost-time injuries among
MedShores 180 EMTs and paramedics is difficult.
Costs can vary, he said. It can go from the low end of a couple of
thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. A minor back injury is
typically $2,000 or $3,000 dollars factoring in time away from work and
medical costs.
Shore said paramedics and EMTs are trained on proper lifting techniques,
but proper training cannot protect them from injury when dealing with so
many overweight patients.
Ive been in this business since 1973 and Ive been fortunate never to
suffer an injury, but many paramedics and EMTs are not that fortunate, he
said. When I started it was rare to see an obese patient. Now, its the
norm.
first-responders-pay-price-h/
ANDERSON When MedShore Ambulance Service Lt. Travis Alewine gets out of
bed in the morning, his back pops, his knees creak and his shoulders ache.
He spends several minutes under a warm shower, allowing the heat to work
its way into his 6-foot, 200-pound frame.
Alewine lives in pain, but not because he played football or another
contact sport professionally.
He is a paramedic. He is not yet 30.
His pain is caused by one thing: regular, heavy lifting.
I sound like a walking time bomb in the mornings, Alewine said with a
grin. I visit the chiropractor every six months. Im dealing with a
hiatal hernia, too.
Alewine estimates that that nine out of 10 paramedics or emergency medical
technicians suffer from back, shoulder or neck injuries.
According to the National Association of Emergency Medical Technicians,
there is no information available to show the rate of injury in
paradmedics and emergency medical technicians.
During a 24-hour shift, well pick up between 15 and 20 patients,
Alewine said. Of those, probably three or four are obese.
According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, South
Carolinas obesity rate grew from less than 10 percent of the population
in 1984 to more than 30 percent as of 2008.
In Anderson County, where the South Carolina Department of Health and
Environmental Control estimates that seven in 10 adults are overweight or
obese, the strain is not limited to the technicians and paramedics who run
the calls.
Medshore chief compliance officer Don McCown said restrictions on how much
weight a medical team can lift means additional teams are sent to assist
them.
Our own people are restricted by how much they can lift. Two technicians
can lift a combined 250 pounds, McCown said. When you start looking at
someone lifting 300, 400 or 500 pounds, we have to send additional teams,
which is an additional cost that we more than likely will not recover.
Helping a heavy patient onto a stretcher is just the beginning, McCown
said.
Girth is the real issue, he said. Once we have an obese patient on a
gurney, often we cant keep them on there.
He said the fee for transporting patients is not adjusted for a persons
weight.
Right now, there is no additional charge for transporting obese patients
even though it can cost us two or three times more. We cannot charge more.
It is considered discriminatory.
Refusing to respond to a call is not an option, McCown said.
The one thing we cannot do is refuse to treat or transport a patient. If
you call 911, we have to come and give you the option of going to the
hospital.
Medshore receives an average of 1,000 calls in Anderson County each week,
McCown said. Of those, about 800 are nonemergency calls.
With such a large population uninsured, their primary health care is the
emergency room and their primary transportation is the ambulance service.
They know if they call, we have to come.
EMT Heather Tumblin, 23, has been working at MedShore for a little over
two months.
She said she has been told to expect to be on the job for five or six
years before burning out or being forced out by physical problems.
Tumblin said she had been on two calls that day to transport patients who
required additional help to lift.
A man fell and his home-health nurse could not lift him, she said. He
weighed 375 pounds.
McCown said Medshore owns two bariatric ambulances, both which are in
Medshores Columbia location.
Wed like to add extended ramps and winches to all our ambulances, but at
about $1,400 to convert an ambulance, its something we cant do all at
once, he said.
He said hearing the word winch when discussing patients was unusual.
Its very strange for me to use the word winch after 33 years in this
business, but theres no doubt about it were dealing with a higher
percentage of the population that is obese, he said. Its commonplace
now.
Recently, Medshore financed about $500,000 to buy more than 30 bariatric
stretchers and stair chairs. Outfitted with battery-operated lifts, the
stretchers are rated to lift and hold 700 pounds, 250 pounds more than the
stretchers normally used.
Much like a dolly, stair chairs are used to move patients up and down long
flights of stairs.
McCown said the stretchers and stair chairs were purchased to better serve
customers and to protect employees.
Lifting patients puts tremendous stress on the human body one of our
biggest injuries is back injuries, McCown said. One employee had three
back injuries in a single year hes 41.
Medshore chief executive officer Greg Shore said the money MedShore
expects to save will be well worth the hefty price tag.
Purchasing the new equipment will more than pay for itself in the long-
run, he said. We will save on insurance premiums and hopefully on having
fewer lost-time injuries.
He said estimating the overall costs related to lost-time injuries among
MedShores 180 EMTs and paramedics is difficult.
Costs can vary, he said. It can go from the low end of a couple of
thousand dollars to tens of thousands of dollars. A minor back injury is
typically $2,000 or $3,000 dollars factoring in time away from work and
medical costs.
Shore said paramedics and EMTs are trained on proper lifting techniques,
but proper training cannot protect them from injury when dealing with so
many overweight patients.
Ive been in this business since 1973 and Ive been fortunate never to
suffer an injury, but many paramedics and EMTs are not that fortunate, he
said. When I started it was rare to see an obese patient. Now, its the
norm.