The Alachua County Fire Department added an updated rescue truck to its fleet this week.
In order to operate the new truck, paramedics had to complete a certification from UF which requires an additional 120 training hours, and assistant fire chief Harold Theus said some paramedics have spent the last two years completing the certification in preparation for the new vehicle.
The vehicle has ventilators, IV pumps and new medications that paramedics do not typically carry on advanced life support rescue units, Theus said. That’s one of the main benefits of the new truck: increasing the level of care for each patient its team transports.
Theus said patients are transported from smaller, local hospitals throughout the region to both UF Health Shands Hospital and North Florida Regional Medical Center for critical care and those patients need a way to safely travel back to their local hospitals when they are in more stable conditions.
Theus said the new vehicle will likely serve those patients, freeing up trucks to respond to dispatch calls within the county’s jurisdiction.
“For our community, it leaves more units available to run emergency calls here as 911 — our primary responsibility,” Theus said.
[A version of this story ran on page 9 on 11/4/2014]
