New ambulances, supervisor trucks at Williamson Medical Center

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Williamson Medical Center EMS welcomes advanced ambulances, supervisor trucks

FRANKLIN, Tenn.—Williamson Medical Center’s EMS team is made up of extremely skilled men and women who know what to do when emergency strikes. To get to where that emergency is happening, and to help the people affected, they need the most reliable set of wheels available.

Being the official EMS service for Williamson County, keeping an updated fleet of ambulances is very important. WMC has 16 of them, covering all of the county’s 583 square miles. Allen Lovett, Director of EMS for WMC, estimates that his team’s ambulances each travel around 25,000 miles per year. With that in mind, the team recently upgraded its fleet; bringing on two new ambulances and two supervisor trucks—and these vehicles come equipped with some unique innovations.

One of the new ambulances at Williamson Medical Center

You may not know it, but EMS vehicles are custom-made for the agencies that order them. Many of the new features were based on feedback from Williamson’s paramedics and AEMTs.

The WMC ambulance already stands out in a crowd. Its bright, blue and yellow color scheme is easy to spot; a great feature in times of emergency. The newest additions to the team are even brighter, though, using a type of reflective material that’s popular with authorities in Europe but new to the United States.

Close up of some the new reflective material on the ambulances

Williamson Medical Center’s new ambulances also come with updated sirens equipped with additional speakers that produce lower frequencies. This means that not only can you hear the siren, you can feel it, too. This can be beneficial for those who are hearing impaired or playing loud music that may not be able to see the vehicle approaching.

Rear door of one of the new ambulances

Improvements were made on the inside, as well. Working with WMC’s EMS personnel, cabinets in the new ambulances have been moved around to allow the responders easier access to many of the tools they need while remaining seated.

WMC is proud that the aluminum used in the outer frame of all of its ambulances is twice as thick as the industry standard, to help keep both patients and personnel even safer. That tradition continues with the new vehicles.

Another attribute the EMS team is proud of is that their ambulances are like mobile emergency rooms. They contain equipment that can be found in most ERs, and all EMS personnel have Advanced Life Support (ALS) training. A variety of life-saving medications can be found inside, as well. Many of those medications require being stored in precisely controlled temperatures, so the new vehicles also contain improvements to the storage system.

While the ambulances are dispatched to emergencies, there is another vehicle that may respond with them on calls. That would be the supervisor truck.

Williamson Medical Center EMS’ new supervisor trucks

Just like it sounds, the truck is driven by an EMS supervisor. In scenarios where there are multiple patients, or multiple ambulances are needed, the supervisor will bring their vehicle to the scene to help with coordination and logistics.

Outside of a coordinator role, all of WMC’s EMS supervisors are critical care paramedics; very specialized responders with the highest level of pre-hospital care. While many of Williamson’s EMS personnel are also critical care certified, the supervisor can step in and assist if one is needed and not in the area.

Rear view of one of the new supervisor trucks

The trucks are four-wheel drive and are able to leave the road if the need arises. They also come equipped with laptops that keep track of all of WMC’s ambulances. They also have been outfitted with many of the same improvements as the new ambulances, including the new reflective material on the outside, as well as the low frequency siren.

The new ambulances and supervisor trucks hit the road during the summer of 2018. With these new vehicles in the fleet, the reputation of Williamson Medical Center’s EMS department as a local, state, and national leader is sure to continue.