Earlier this month the Greenport Rescue Squad welcomed a shiny new addition to its team: a brand new custom outfitted ambulance.
Rescue squad captain Linda Mysliborski is thrilled.
“It’s very exciting,” says Mysliborski. “The best thing about the new ambulance is its larger size. In the older ambulances it’s very cramped; there’s not enough room if you have three EMTs working at the same time. It can be difficult. It’s great to have all the extra room.”
The new ambulance also has a feature lacking in their previous vehicles: the walls are made of a white-board surface so EMTs can write on them.
Mysliborski explains: “If someone’s doing a PCR [patient care report] they can write the vital signs directly onto the wall and when we get to the hospital we can just transcribe them. It’s really convenient.”
The gas-powered Ford ambulance, which was funded by Greenport Village, was originally supposed to take 18 months to be delivered but it ended up taking less than a year.
The process to get the funding in place for the ambulance was pretty quick, Mysliborski said. “We sent out our specs and companies bid through the village. Then the village approved one of the bids and they got to work outfitting the ambulance for us.” The cost of the new vehicle was just over $200,000.
There will be a christening of the new ambulance in the spring. Although it hasn’t been out on its first official call yet, the fire department is breaking it in using it on standby at football games and taking it to fire school for training. It stands ready for any emergencies that may occur.
Editor’s note: This article has been amended to remove an incorrect cost estimate originally provided to SoutholdLOCAL.
SoutholdLOCAL photos by Katharine Schroeder
