North Charlotte Today

Seconds matter in a life-saving situation, so the Mecklenburg County EMS is thinking its investment in new cardiac monitors will help first responders save more lives.

“We use them all the time, so it was very important that whatever device we went with would be reliable, easy to use and easy to train,” Drew Williams, a crew chief with the EMS unit, said in a WCNC report Monday. 

The new devices will be used on almost every call. They can monitor a patient's blood pressure and pulse or be used to get an EKG reading during a cardiac episode. Officials say the devices will give first responders vital statistics faster, so they can follow up quicker.

The monitors will be aboard each ambulance in the fleet. When they’re used, the hospital can see real-time data, allowing medical professionals to get a read on a patient while they are in transit to the emergency room. 

“Let’s say it’s an atypical cardiac arrest, and we need some help or need some consultation on what to do next,” Williams supposed. “Instead of having to explain all of this over the radio, they can just pull it up and see everything we've done on that monitor. Every defibrillation, every time we've started and stopped CPR, every time we've checked for a pulse."

The new devices also allow for the collection of performance data, giving the agency feedback and providing training opportunities. 

“When we start noticing trends, we can issue education,” Williams said. “When it looks like as an agency, our compression rate is getting a little too fast or it's getting a little too slow."