On September 29, Suffield Volunteer Ambulance Association Chief John Spencer and Lt. Jacob Audet traveled to West Jefferson, N. C., to complete the final inspection of the association’s newest ambulance, a 2022 Ford F550 that was built by American Emergency Vehicles (AEV). The ambulance was built with the input of a robust committee of providers and was designed with both safety of their providers and their patients as the top priority. This ambulance will replace the oldest ambulance in the fleet, a 2009 Chevy with over 200,000 miles on the unit. The ambulance will go on-line in early November.
Contact-assuring jelly is applied to the probe of one of the new ultrasound devices being installed in SVAA ambulances.
The association also recently deployed several new technologies to assist their paramedics in providing the highest level of care possible to the community. Paramedics are now equipped with infusion pumps that allow for the accurate delivery and monitoring of medications, but the most exciting technology is perhaps the first of its kind for ambulance services in the state of Connecticut. Beginning in November, the association’s paramedics will be able to utilize point-of- care ultrasound in the field. These new portable ultrasound devices allow the paramedics to use ultrasound to detect bleeding in the abdomen in trauma patients as well as assess cardiac and pulmonary function in critically ill patients. Suffield Volunteer Ambulance Association will be the first ambulance service to deploy this technology in Connecticut and are proud to bring such a high level of service to the community of Suffield.