BY ALAN M. PETRILLO
Ambulance manufacturers are responding to customer requests for specific innovations in terms of designs and equipment, both inside and outside of an ambulance’s patient box. In addition, makers are coming up with innovative ideas of their own to increase the safety and efficiency of the working crew as well as the patient.
PL CUSTOM
Chad Newsome, national sales manager for PL Custom Body and Equipment Co. Inc., says PL Custom has been focused on meeting the requirements in Change Notice 10 (July 2017) to the Federal Specification for Star-of-Life Ambulances (KKK-A 1822(F). The Change Notice dealt with three areas, he says: ambulance modular body evaluation, interior cabinet integrity, and patient compartment structural integrity. “With our Medic in Mind design, we want to keep the crew seated and belted and all switches and equipment close at hand so the medic doesn’t have to get up and move around,” Newsome points out.
1 The Medic in Mind design by PL Custom Body and Equipment Co. Inc. has radiused countertops and cabinet corners, no lip counter for monitors, a USSC Valor seatback, and storage in easy reach for medics without unbuckling. (Photos 1-3 courtesy of PL Custom Body and Equipment Co. Inc.) 2 PL Custom’s full-height side-entry door (curbside) for easier entrance and egress. 3 By recessing portable oxygen tanks in an ambulance’s side entry step well, PL Custom eliminates a step hazard.
Newsome notes that PL Custom forms its countertops from a Corian-type material with radiused edges to mitigate any sharp points, and its interior cabinets are cut on a 45-degree angle so they don’t offer any strike points. “We also have been coating the back side of cabinets, the wheel wells inside the box, and the step wells with AudioGuard, a sound-deadening material,” he says. “We are making the inside of the truck very quiet because we want the crew to not be distracted by noise and be able to clearly hear any patient conversation.”
BRAUN INDUSTRIES
Chad Brown, vice president of sales and marketing for Braun Industries Inc., says Braun’s recent ambulanc
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