The Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps will be purchasing three cardiac monitors, with the City of Havre de Grace covering the cost, to replace its existing units.
Zachary Coyle, president of the Ambulance Corps, said Wednesday that EMS workers use the LIFEPAK units "pretty much on every call."
Members of the Havre de Grace City Council unanimously approved a resolution during a recent meeting to spend nearly $90,000 to purchase the new LIFEPAK 15 cardiac monitors.
Council members voted first to introduce Resolution 2015-01 and then adopt it.
"I would encourage council's support in this," Councilman Dave Glenn said before the introduction vote. "One thing we can't compromise is safety."
The LIFEPAK 15, which is made by the Redmond, Wash.-based Physio-Control, is a cardiac monitor and defibrillator.
"These LIFEPAKs are so invaluable to what they do each and every day, and almost every call they go on, they're used," Glenn said.
The city will enter a memorandum of understanding with the Ambulance Corps to spend $89,178 on the three units, half during the spring and the second half during July, when the 2015-2016 fiscal year begins, according to the resolution.
Councilman Steve Gamatoria asked where the funding will come from, and Mayor Wayne Dougherty said the money will come from slip user fees, which are collected from users of the city's boat slips and launching ramps.
The council approved in November 2014 the allocation of $300,000 in slip user revenue to help the Susquehanna Hose Company purchase a new firefighting and rescue boat.
Dougherty said during the recent council meeting that he had met with Ambulance Corps Chief Peter Quackenbush over the past several months to discuss the purchase of the LIFEPAK units.
"He pretty well laid out the importance of these items," Dougherty said.
The mayor added: "I assure you, as it has been in the past, I appreciate working with Havre de Grace Ambulance Corps."
Coyle and Mark Hemler, the past president and a member of the Ambulance Corps board, attended the council meeting, and they thanked the mayor and council members for their support.
"In these hard economic times, we can't tell you how much that means to us," Coyle said. "We're looking forward to our continuing relationship with you guys, going forward."
Hemler explained that a LIFEPAK is "basically not something that you put on your back," but cardiac monitors that "will definitely save lives."
"They're costly, but we can't put a price on a life, so we appreciate your support," he said.
Coyle said Wednesday that LIFEPAKs are typically stored in an ambulance, but they can be unplugged and taken anywhere in the field.
The device can be powered by being plugged into an electrical outlet, or "Lithium-ion dual battery Technology," according to a catalog posted on the Physio-Control website.
The device was originally just a defibrillator, used to restart a patient's heart, but multiple features have been added over the years to make it an effective monitor as well as a defibrillator, Coyle said.
"They do have a pretty good shelf life," he said. "Some of those monitors, we've had for over a decade."
He said some of the LIFEPAKs' uses include EKG readings, which can be sent from the ambulance to the hospital while the patient is in transit, and capnography, the process of measuring carbon monoxide levels compared to oxygen levels in a patient potentially exposed to carbon monoxide.
Coyle noted that the Ambulance Corps eventually will not be able to get replacement parts for existing units from the manufacturer, and the company will not work on aging units, but the Corps can trade in their current units for a discount on the new equipment.
He said the Corps can begin making purchases when the first payment comes from the city in April, and again when the second payment comes in July. Representatives of the manufacturer will train Ambulance Corps members in July, and then they will be put into use.