Total ZOLL

EVAC Ambulance, which serves Volusia County in Florida, purchased its first piece of ZOLL equipment, an Auto Pulse non-invasive cardiac support pump, in 2003. Since then, the agency has progressively added more products including E Series defibrillators, documentation software and RescueNet Link,* which gives them the ability to do prehospital transmission of 12-lead ECG.

"Time is crucial for someone having an acute myocardial infarction," says Mark Swanson, captain and director of clinical services for EVAC. "This unit saves valuable time, which saves heart muscle."

Swanson and Mike Poniatowski, captain and director of operations, refer to the agency as "Total ZOLL."

"ZOLL offers everything we need for every facet of EMS, including deployment, dispatch, reporting, medical, billing and staffing," says Poniatowski. The agency is also serving as a test site for an electronic patient documentation system, which it plans to add once tests are complete.

"When you rely on one manufacturer for all of your equipment there are no compatibility issues," says Poniatowski. "Everything is seamless. There can be conflicts when you try to marry different software programs. But when equipment is from the same vendor, you can integrate different programs and different facets without any issues. We know from experience, when you're depending on high-end software programs to work for you and they don't, you're dead in the water. Information is key to being successful and efficient. When you lose that information stream, it can cause big trouble. You don't have those issues when you're compatible from the get-go."

Swanson also believes that going "Total ZOLL" provides additional benefits. "We consider ourselves a forward-thinking agency, an EMS innovator, that strives to eliminate issues and increase efficiency," he says. "We can do that with ZOLL products. When people are familiar with a product line, they instinctively know how to use it. It's intuitive."

For more, visit www.zoll.com.

*This product functionality is not available for distribution in the United States or Canada, as it has not been reviewed and cleared by the FDA and/or Health Canada.