Friday, November 16, 2007

** Ambulance crashes into Indiana Starbucks

** Edmonton, Alberta medics increasingly detained at ERs

** Ferno Canada announces new pricing reflecting stronger Canadian dollar

UNITED STATES NEWS

** A Greenwood, Indiana paramedic has egg on his face, after crashing into a Starbucks when he accidentally put his vehicle in gear. The Indiana Star (Bill McCleery/November 15) said the unidentified Trans-Care Inc. practitioner, who was bending down to pick something up at the time, did the deed by bumping the shift around 1 a.m. Thursday morning. No was injured and no patient was on board at the time. Shattering the coffee shop’s window, the business closed briefly before reopening a short time later.

CANADA NEWS

** Edmonton paramedics are apparently increasingly being delayed at hospitals doing dropoffs. That is the word from the Edmonton Journal (Susan Ruttan/November 15) which said average wait times at ERs in October sat at 68 minutes. The stat in 2006 was 55 minutes. Prompting an upward swing in the number of red alerts, where no ambulances are available, the newspaper said October saw 24 instances where EMS declared the status. Along with moving admitted patients from crowded ERs to regular hospital wards, other measures aimed at easing prehospital pressure involve a plan to hire paramedics to toil in ERs.

** Mississauga, Ontario: Ferno Canada announced today that it is issuing a new price list to reflect the strength of the Canadian dollar versus the declining U.S. greenback. Since much of the broad line of patient handling and immobilization equipment that Ferno Canada distributes is manufactured by it’s parent Company, Ferno Washington, Inc in the United States, import prices have been greatly reduced due to the currency situation. ” We recognize that Emergency Services budgets are stretched far to thin at the best of times so anything we can do to pass on savings to these organizations in Canada will help to ensure that they are able to equip themselves with the newest models of products available on the market” says Bruce Whitaker, Managing Director of Ferno Canada. Ferno is a global leader in the provision of solutions to the Emergency Services, Emergency Preparedness and Mass Casualty industry sectors.