Fire chief seeks ambulance monitor purchase funded from ambulance fund

Brian Sarver, Carlisle’s fire chief, asked the council to approve a purchase from the town’s ambulance fund for an advanced patient monitor to use in the ambulance.

Sarver said the device can acquire and transmit 12‑lead EKGs from the scene to emergency departments so hospitals can direct crews to the most appropriate facility. "We can acquire and transmit 12‑lead EKGs from the scene to the ER and then they can tell us which hospital we need to go to," he said. He also said the monitor supports capnography and other advanced testing that verify the treatments crews provide.

The chief said recent changes in state protocols require advanced testing for some airway and advanced care procedures, and that the monitor would allow Carlisle personnel to continue using life‑saving treatments the department has used several times in the past. "The state has changed their protocols that we need this more advanced testing in order to continue using these," Sarver said.

Sarver described operational benefits beyond diagnoses: having EKGs and vitals already captured and uploaded would help incoming paramedics on scene and speed hospital handoffs. "We can upload them automatically to the patient care report which we then send to the hospital," he said.

Sarver emphasized funding would come from the ambulance fund — revenues the town collects from insurance payments for ambulance service — and not from general tax revenue. He asked the council for support of the request; the transcript records the presentation but no formal vote or funding decision.

The body did not record a vote on the request in the provided transcript; next steps were not specified.