Yellow Ambulance rolls out first bariatric ambulance for Louisville and southern Indiana

By BELINDA JOLLY
Director of Yellow Ambulance

LOUISVILLE — Yellow Ambulance is the first in the Louisville region to have a specialized ambulance specifically for bariatric patients.

Yellow Ambulance has identified the need but has gone one step further by providing the solution. This vehicle will be used not only in the Metro Louisville area but also in the surrounding counties and southern Indiana.  This need has risen because of the growing problem sparked by Kentucky’s rising obesity rate. Emergency agencies are creating “bariatric ambulances” which can easily load and safely carry patients who weigh more than 500 pounds.

Yellow Ambulance, organizing with local EMS or fire departments depending on how the call originates, will work together in getting these patients out of the houses and on there way to a medical facility or the Emergency Department. Yellow Ambulance's Bariatric Unit will be available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, and their Emergency Medical Dispatchers can dispatch this unit within 30 minutes notice to response to such calls. This unit will have four emergency medical technicians to deliver basic or advanced life support, depending on the nature of the response requested by the local responders or medical facilities.

To create this specialty ambulance a large dual wheel box ambulance has been modified to include a ramp and remote-controlled electric winch system. The ambulance is also outfitted with a wider stretcher that can hold as much as 1,600 pounds compared to the stretcher being used by most EMS services with a 500 pound weight limit.

Many patients requiring such help from this specialized unit may have felt embarrassed or reluctant to request such a service in the past. Now we are taking away those fears of falling or equipment breaking because of transporting the obese patient.  When there is an emergency, we need to get people to the hospitals as quickly as possible. With larger patients, sometimes we are on the scene for an hour or longer trying to get patients out of their homes and on there way to a medical facility or appointments to see their physician.  When utilizing this equipment there will be a decrease of  “on the job” injuries for EMS workers. We need to move our patients safely and comfortable and not injure our employees in the process and this new equipment will do just that.

This new unit became available Feb. 20.  Medical facilities as well as local agencies may call Yellow Ambulance directly to utilize this unit.  Kentucky has the sixth worst ranking for obesity. That’s why Yellow Ambulance has gone one step further by providing the solution on transporting the obese patient. 

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