Ambulance Service Adapts to Statewide EMS Shortages

UnityPoint Health Equips Ambulances to Adapt to Statewide Shortage

It was a Friday in February and the UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown ambulance service, along with first-responders from Albion and Liscomb, were dispatched to a scene with a young adult down and unresponsive. The individual was passed out while working in a closed building heated by a portable generator.

It was a dangerous situation – and yet fortunate at the same time. After all, thanks to post-derecho purchases, the UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown ambulance service finds itself as well-equipped as any unit in the state for these types of scenarios.

Inside the building, the Marshalltown team of paramedic Jimmy Hicklin and EMTs Troy Robasse and Tom Hard immediately started giving care. However, less than a minute later, a carbon-monoxide monitor started sounding an alarm. Crews opened the garage doors and continued to work on the unresponsive patient. Once resuscitated, he was placed on a paraPAC ventilator, which eliminated the need to manually ventilate the patient and reduced the risk of fatigue and human error.

Fortunately, the patient recovered, and it was due in part to a series of proactive purchases. In the wake of the derecho, UnityPoint Health bought six carbon-monoxide monitors, two cardiac monitors and three LUCAS mechanical CPR devices for its ambulances, while six paraPAC ventilators were purchased between funds from the UnityPoint Health – Marshalltown Foundation and a state grant.

“With the current statewide shortage of first responders, we need to adapt by turning to special tools to aid us,” said Nick Heintz, the regional manager of emergency ground services. “For instance, the paraPAC ventilator does the work of at least one person, not factoring fatigue.”

According to a report by Iowa Public Radio last year, Iowa has seen a 4-percent decrease in the number of registered EMTs over the past five years. Furthermore, 14 of Iowa’s 99 counties have coverage by just one ambulance service. Another one, Worth County in north-central Iowa, doesn’t have any service for its 400 square miles.

“To help support our pursuit of providing the best patient care possible, the hospital and foundation wanted to ensure every ambulance had its own ventilator, cardiac monitor and LUCAS device,” Heintz said. “These purchases increase our ability to perform advanced-level patient care despite having fewer available human resources. And, frankly, it’s put us in the top tier of equipped ambulance services in the state.”