Mac`s Ambulance Lifts Save Backs During Neonatal Transports

Arkansas Children's Hospital, the sixth-largest in the United States, provides hospital-to-hospital transports of children up to age 21, most notably neonatal transports.

“All those babies are transported in Isolettes, and they’re heavy—about 325 pounds,” says Paul Yarberry, EMT coordinator for the hospital’s Angel One Transport with a staff of 12 EMTs.

They have had Mac's Ambulance Lifts from Mac's Lift Gate, Inc. in service since 2000.

“Before that we had ramps and we were rolling them up the ramps,” he says. “A lot of times we were having to lift them into the back of the truck.”

It’s no surprise that doing that heavy-duty loading and unloading an average of 20 times per day was taking a toll on the crews.

“We were having quite a few back injuries,” Yarberry says. “We went to these lifts and it cut that down to almost zero.”

When you consider the cost savings of preventing staff injuries, the product more than pays for itself, he adds. The service has them on all four of their current ground ambulances and has ordered another for an upcoming fifth ambulance.

Mac's Lift Gate, Inc. offers three types of ambulance lifts: an Isolette lift, a bariatric lift and a cardiac care lift.

Before Angel One Transport purchased these lifts the service had tried a different manufacturer and had numerous mechanical issues, Yarberry says. With Mac's Ambulance Lifts, they’ve only had to order one part since 2000. “That’s a long time with almost no maintenance,” he says. They had an excellent experience with customer service, he adds.

“These lifts are pretty much maintenance-free and easy to operate. They’re simple and straightforward. There are two buttons—one for up and one for down. It doesn’t get much better than that.”

Visit www.macsliftgate.com.