Avoid Lower-Back Injuries with the Graham Megamover Transport Plus

First responders, by default, accept that injuries, disabilities, and even death are risks that invariably accompany the profession. Lifting and moving are among the most important activities in which EMS providers perform daily. The consequences of a misstep can be devastatingly long-lasting: Accounting for more than 20 percent of all workplace injuries in the U.S., back injuries pose a significant problem for firefighters, EMTs, and paramedics.

In 2014, there were over 21,000 EMS providers treated in hospital EDs, with over one-third being the result of overexertion of the provider. Half of that number was from lifting and moving the patient. The risk of injury among EMS providers is more than three times greater than risks among other private industry occupations: 349.9/10,000 vs. 122.2/10,000, based on data compiled by the U.S. Dept. of Labor.

Unfortunately, the EMS profession has dramatically lagged behind in research on safe lifting and moving practices. This has led to a deficiency in translating data-driven research into practice in order to minimize injuries among EMS professionals. As a result, the rates of injury have remained staggeringly high.

According to recent Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data, more than 27,000 fire/EMS workers experienced on-the-job injuries and illnesses. Specifically, more than 21 percent of these injuries were comprised of lower-back injuries. Here’s an applicable, everyday example of such an injury:

You’re nearing the end of a long shift, and you’ve been running hard all day. Then, the call comes in: Respond to a home to assist a patient with an injury to a lower extremity. Once on-scene, you and your partner find the patient down in a bathtub, completely immobilized.

Time is short, so rather than heading back to the ambulance to retrieve a lifting tarp, you try to lift the patient up onto a spine board. That’s when it happens: There’s a pop in your back, immediately followed by sharp, stinging pain that permeates your lower-back region.

These kinds of incidents are becoming more and more prevalent: Based on data compiled by the International Association of Fire Fighters, 50 percent of line-of-duty claims and 50 percent of early retirements result from lower-back injuries. Injuries like these force departments to incur significantly high costs, which directly hinder staffing efforts.

The persistent back pain can be extremely difficult for injured fire/EMS professionals to deal with, both on- and off-duty. Lingering lower-back pain invades personal lives, making once-enjoyable activities unbearable. These injuries allow only light-duty assignments, which yield only two-thirds of the normal pay rate. Needless to say, this will result in stressful financial hardships.

Employers are also affected: Workers’ compensation payments will need to be made, and open positions will need to be backfilled with overtime shifts. These scenarios lead to augmented levels of provider fatigue, high costs, elevated numbers of patient-care errors, and higher risks of injuries to healthy members.

“As EMS providers, we are supposed to be the ones helping patients, not the ones becoming patients,” according to theEMSstore Merchandising Specialist and volunteer firefighter/EMT Amanda Keesey. “Scene awareness and safety is a must. No matter how small or large the patient is, using the proper lifting technique will help to prevent short-or long-term back injuries.”

What specialized equipment can be used to avoid improper-lifting techniques, lower-back injuries, and keep crews fit-for-duty at all times? The Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is designed especially for these reasons.

As a leading provider of quality, single-use medical products, Graham Medical is renowned for creating solutions that make emergency medical professionals’ jobs easier through improving efficiency. The cost-effective, compact, flexible Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is the preferred choice of EMS professionals. It’s ideal for any number of operations, including moving, transferring, or rescuing patients from inaccessible areas, such as uneven terrain, stairs, and more.

“When lifting a patient, we need to assess the scene, first and foremost,” Keesey said. “Using an incredible resource like the Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is the best way to combat injuries to ourselves and safely transport patients, all while nullifying the chances of further injuring them.”

With the Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus, the chances are minimized for back injuries. Thanks to its non-woven, latex-free construction and 14 handles, crews can easily perform ergonomically sound lifting techniques, up to 1000 pounds. Plus, the Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is available with PowerGrip™ handles for improved comfort and durability. Additionally, it can easily be stored, deployed, and transported.

Crews will surely make it to retirement age with a body that can move without pain. The Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is available as a single unit or a case of 10 at theEMSstore.com.

Save a Child’s Life by First Training with the Crisis Manikin

It’s a universal constant: Kids excel at getting themselves into trouble, from pulling hot pots and pans filled with boiling water off stoves onto themselves to wandering into unsupervised pools. All that needs to be present is one potentially dangerous item to cause the worst of catastrophes.

As an emergency medical professional, you need to be ready well ahead of time to deal with various child-related medical emergencies. This is precisely why proper training is critical: Rely on a state-of-the-art, full-body manikin that offers realistic, child-airway management training, CPR education, and more: the Nasco Child Crisis Manikin with ECG Simulator.

By combining all of the skill stations, the Nasco Child Crisis Manikin with ECG Simulator is able to offer extremely realistic training by simulating a five-year-old child, thereby providing complete PALS-training capabilities. The manikin’s anatomical accuracy is demonstrated in its life-like landmarks, which include a mouth, tongue, oral pharynx, epiglottis, arytenoids, vocal cords, trachea, and esophagus.

In addition to its palpable and visual landmarks, the Nasco Child Crisis Manikin with ECG Simulator’s head, neck, and jaw are fully integrated, allowing for a realistic, jaw-thrust feature. It also includes an Arrhythmia Simulator that is capable of recreating 17 adult heart rhythms and 17 pediatric rhythms. Utilize its separate left and right lungs for auscultation and its inflatable stomach bladder to indicate esophageal intubation. Some additional specs include:

a blood pressure arm that features:

• a palpable radial pulse
• a speaker in arm reproduces real blood pressure sounds

a defibrillation chest that features:

• manual, automatic, and semi-automatic defibrillation modes
• rhythms detected at four ECG sites and two defibrillation sites

an IV arm that offers:

• articulated biceps for antecubital and dorsal access
• replaceable skin and veins
• smaller lumen tubing that simulates the size of a child’s veins

Get the accurate training you need before you’re faced with a child-related emergency situation. For more information and to get yours, be sure to visit theEMSstore.com. 

The Megamover: Safe Patient Transport for Emergency Responders

Highly regarded as a leading provider of quality, single-use medical products, Graham Medical prides themselves on creating solutions that make emergency medical professionals’ jobs easier through improving efficiency. As an emergency medical provider, you know that when it comes to safely moving a patient civilly and efficiently, sometimes it’s not as easy as it may appear. Avoiding injuries is critical in these cases, as EMTs and paramedics need to be fit-for-duty at all times. After all, if you’re hurt, how can you give it your all when serving your community?

As the preferred choice of EMS professionals, the new Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is a cost-effective, compact, flexible patient-transport unit. It is ideal for moving, transferring, or rescuing patients from inaccessible areas that make the use of stretchers obsolete, such as uneven terrain, stairs, and more.

You can rest assured that you won’t injure your back thanks to the Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus’ non-woven, latex-free construction that can hold up to 1,000 pounds and has 14 handles that allow for ergonomically sound lifting. Who wouldn’t want to make it to retirement age with a body that can move without pain, right?

Additionally, the Graham Medical Megamover Transport Plus is available with PowerGrip™ handles for augmented comfort and durability. Plus, it’s easy to store, transport, and deploy. Get yours as a single unit or a case of 10 today at theEMSstore. 

PDI Wipes: Fast Contact Time and Quick Turnover

As an emergency medical professional, you are well-aware of the important role you play in preventing and controlling infections. You’re on the front line of medical care, which places you at a high risk of exposure to patients with known or unknown infectious diseases or germs.

Offering market-leading, infection-prevention products and solutions for healthcare facilities, PDI stands with you in the fight against the spread of infections, all while controlling healthcare costs and ultimately, saving lives. Ideal for daily use in fast-paced environments that require broad coverage of microorganisms, the new PDI Super Sani-Cloth® Germicidal Disposable Wipes allow for fast contact time and quick room-turnover.

Considered the no.1 brand of disinfectant wipes in healthcare, the PDI Super Sani-Cloth® Germicidal Disposable Wipes are effective against up to 30 microorganisms in two minutes. As EPA-registered, intermediate-level disinfectants, these pre-moistened wipes are ready-to-use, clean, and disinfect all in one step.

Fully compatible with a broad range of healthcare-related surfaces and equipment, the PDI Super Sani-Cloth® Germicidal Disposable Wipes’ thick, strong-wipe material has a high-fluid capacity and is exceptionally pliable, allowing it to permeate crevices and difficult corners of equipment.

A deep-well lid offers a generous amount of space to store and access the next wipe, while a safety icon clearly denotes important, safety-related information on both the label and lid. They are useful on a number of hard, non-porous surfaces, including bed railings, blood-glucose meters (glucometers), cabinets, carts, chairs, exam tables, stretchers, and many more. Additional specs include the following:

• along with being bactericidal, the wipes are also tuberculocidal and virucidal
• the wipes meet CDC, OSHA, AHE, and CMS Tag F441 guidelines
• 160 wipes included

For more information and to get yours, be sure to visit theEMSstore.com.

Save Time and Lives with Water-Jel Fire Blankets

Burn wounds and injuries are usually devastating, inflicting long-term consequences on their victims. As an emergency medical professional, you need to be adequately prepared to effectively deal with burn-related emergencies, as every second becomes critical to saving lives.

As a leading authority on all types of burns, burn treatment, and household-burn safety, Water-Jel Technologies offers dressings and blankets that are ideal for first-aid burn treatment in a pre-hospital setting. The Water-Jel Fire Blanket is a vital tool to have in areas where high-heat flames, arc flashes, hot liquids, or chemicals pose serious burn injury-related risks. Here’s why:

Comprised of 100% worsted wool, the Water-Jel Fire Blanket is designed with an intercellular weave that can efficiently absorb up to 13 times its own weight in the scientifically formulated cooling gel in which it is soaked. To immediately alleviate pain and halt burn progression, it is equipped with a biodegradable, bacteriostatic, and water-soluble gel that instantly begins working upon contact.

Utilized by both emergency medical professionals as well as firefighters worldwide, the Water-Jel Fire Blanket’s gel is crystal-clear and fragrance-free, containing a 96% water-in-a-gel form to allow convective cooling – as opposed to evaporative cooling – which minimizes the risk of treatment-induced hypothermia. It is non-adherent, featuring hyaluronic acid and a paraben-free, broad-spectrum preservative system.

Additionally, an improved canister design allows the blanket to be easily and quickly removed for use, which means you can treat burn victims quicker and save more lives. The new design has an easy-grip handle that offers convenient carrying; there’s no bending, cracking, or resistance hindering you. Simply use its new grip-and-turn system to quickly open it, and then secure the blanket inside with an easy-lock mechanism. Other specs include:

blanket sizes:

• 3’ x 2.5’
• 6’ x 5’
• 8’ x 6’

box or case quantity:

• single-foil pouch
• four pouches/case
• single canister
• case of four canisters

For more information and to get yours, be sure to visit theEMSstore.com.

Utilize Efficient, Powerful Lighting With the New i7R

When responding to the scene of an emergency, it’s a good bet that you’ll literally have your hands full – or at the very least one of them. Equipped with LED Lenser’s Rapid Focus system, the new i7R Rechargeable Flashlight with Double Charging Base makes for an ideal instrument for the most-demanding scenarios. Here’s why:

This versatile light has many convenient uses, all based on your individual needs: You can go from reading to searching by using the thumb on your holding hand to easily slide the bezel away from you. Or with the use of one hand and one smooth, efficient movement, you can achieve a seamless transition from close to far and all points in between. Along with its patented Advanced Focus System (AFS), which allows for an effortless transition from homogeneous low beam to sharply focused high beam, the LED Lenser i7R Rechargeable Flashlight with Double Charging Base’s CREE® LED chips feature a blindingly bright lumen output.

Featuring a robust, metal housing, the LED Lenser i7R Rechargeable Flashlight with Double Charging Base has water-resistant IPX4 technology, allowing it to stand up to the soggiest of conditions. Its advanced, focus-system optics keep its light source consistent, no matter if you’re using its flood beam or spot beam. You can choose between its two power modes – maximum, which offers up to 220 lumens, and minimum, which offers 25 lumens – and a dynamic switch located on the end of its barrel that allows you to easily operate its high-illumination and soft-light settings.

The LED Lenser i7R Rechargeable Flashlight with Double Charging Base is supplied with a charging base equipped with a charging indicator, so EMTs can enjoy its energy-efficient recharging capabilities. Additionally, its “Frozen Black” textured coating offers improved grip and comfort, making it easier to handle in inclement-weather conditions or while wearing gloves. Other specs include the following:

• USB connection
• clip
• length: 5.1 inches long (13 centimeters)
• weight: 6.2 ounces (175 grams)
• battery type: 4 x AAA

For more information and to get yours, be sure to visit theEMSstore.com. 

Illuminate the Way to Safety with the Break Away

Not surprisingly, two of the major hindrances currently affecting how emergency medical professionals do their jobs involve sight, or a lack thereof. Foxfire, a pioneer in the development of energy-efficient, eco-friendly products designed with advanced photoluminescent technology, specializes in assisting first responders to face these obstacles with their illumination products in a number of ways: by improving positional orientation, illuminating search areas, and easily locating personnel. Their new Break Away Safety Vest, an ideal tool for use while performing public safety work, will ensure that you’re highly visible and well-protected, no matter if it’s day or night. Here’s why:

Equipped with both ANSI Class II certified retro-reflective material and advanced photoluminescent technology, you can be assured that you’ll be seen, regardless of how much light is present or absent when wearing the Foxfire Break Away Safety Vest: During daylight hours, it reflects direct light to augment your visibility; at night, it emits a light output of +1,000 mcd/m² for up to 80 hours when fully charged.

By harnessing the power of any light source, the Foxfire Break Away Safety Vest can quickly and efficiently recharge in only minutes, thereby nullifying the need for an external battery supply. Comfort and convenience meet lofty technical standards: Its advanced photoluminescent technology is UL-tested to meet or exceed the ASTM E2072/3 international standards for photoluminescence-safety materials, while its five-point, break-away feature allows for effortless, effective donning and doffing. Even better, you’ll always be seen from any angle when wearing it, all thanks to its 360-degree visibility, so you won’t have to worry about watching your back.

Stay seen to be safe when working on-scene. For more information and to get yours, be sure to visit theEMSstore.com.