August Spotlight: Medic 240

When Cumberland Goodwill began our paramedic service in January of this year, one of the situations we needed to prepare for was how to handle paramedic intercepts. Sometimes a Basic Life Support ambulance is dispatched for a patient that ends up requiring a paramedic’s care. This can occur outside of our normal first-due territory. In order to efficiently support both our own and other area ambulance services when they need one of our paramedics, we purchased and outfitted a used 2007 Ford Explorer to serve as Medic 240.

Medic 240 is a non-transporting paramedic squad. Since the first of the year, this unit has responded to emergencies throughout the area and even as far as Perry county. Equipped with the same tools as our Mobile Intensive Care Units (MICUs), Medic 240 is able to bring our paramedic service to any patient that needs our help. This includes its own Philips MRx heart monitor with EKG-through-fax capabilities.

The squad is outfitted with radios to communicate with units from other counties. It is one of our four-wheel-drive units, ensuring a paramedic is always able to get to those sick and injured patients no matter what the weather is outside. GPS and Map-books are available on-board to help our providers locate addresses in territory that is not in our primary response area. Medic 240 is designed to get to patients quickly, safely, and provide high-quality advanced life support on-board any ambulance that requires a paramedic rendezvous.