WHATCOM COUNTY, Wash. – Every fire department ambulance in Whatcom County now carries a state-of-the-art gurney.
Whatcom County Emergency Medical Services manager Michael Hilley says the mobile stretchers from the Stryker company are a big improvement.
Most of the ambulances now have a matched power system that lifts the gurney and the patient into the ambulance.
That helps protect EMS personnel and patients from potential injury.
And having uniform gurneys across the system means they can be swapped when patients have to be transferred between vehicles.
That has sometimes been required under difficult weather or other conditions with the old un-matched gurneys.
A property tax levy passed by voters paid for the new gurneys and has helped fund countywide EMS since 2017.
The levy will expire in 2023 and Whatcom County EMS is working on a replacement that will likely be on the ballot in 2022.