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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| Stony Brook's Kevin O'Hara demonstrates to a group of Universiity Fire Marshals and one of the nursing staff how to assemble the PARASLYDE which is stored flat |
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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| With one of the volunteer "patients" in the device, fire mashals started to get the feel of how to move the unit. |
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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| A major attribute of the system is the ability of the nursing staff to move a patient through the hall to a staircase or an elevator. |
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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| In this view, one of the SBVAC members was in the PARASLYDE as it started its journey down a flight of stairs, held at the top by the repelling system |
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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| Another view of two nurses moving the device with patient down a flight of stairs |
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| By Robert O'Rourk |
| The fire marshals dealing with the very large baseball player "Patient". They did not use the repelling system and did use four marshals to manipulate the device. |
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Stony Brook, NY March 21 Stony Brook University Hospital conducted a mass evacuation exercise this morning, using a new concept to provide transport of non-ambulatory patients by the existing staff personnel. The new concept, called PARASLYDE, permits two nurses to move the patient into the device and then move the patient through the halls ways, onto elevators or to take hem down flights of stairs.
The exercise conducted on the top floor of the hospital was held with nursing staff, University Fire Marshals and members of the Stony Brook Volunteer Ambulance Corps (SBVAC). Plans are to conduct further trainings with Setauket FD and Stony Brook FD, plus the surrounding departments likely to respond to a mutual aid call.
The concept utilized to move patients, called a PARASLYDE, is an 8mm thick corrugated polypropylene device with sides and a system of high strength webbed harness that secures the patient and provides a system permitting ergonomic pulling by hospital staff members. It provides a level of comfort for patients and was felt to be adequate by the “patients” used for the exercise. One was even taken down 12 flights of stairs to demonstrate the unit. The exercise lasted nearly 2 ½ hours, with instructions from the manufacturer’s rep, Emily Boutilette. The initial learning was then followed by teams of responders moving the group of patients who volunteered for the testing.
Patients for the exercise were student from a course in the School of Health Technology and Management. The biggest “patient” was a varsity baseball player. The nurses attending the exercise demonstrated that they could move him through the halls in the PARSLYDE, despite his size and weight. The size difference in the patients was used to show some issues with the buckle system in terms of securing the patient for movement. The manufacture’s rep, disclosed that she would definitely take one of the post exercise feedback suggestions to the manufacturer for a design change to the PARASLYDE.
The PARASLYDE has a pair of harness webbing handles at each end, thus two or four people can move the device, depending on the task at hand and the size and weight of the patient. For stairway egress, a repelling system was recommended for the nurses, some of whom practiced doing just that with “patients and a PARASLYDE. The fire marshals took one patient down 12 flights of stairs, using both two and four men depending on the situation, without using the repelling system. The SBVAC group consisted of volunteers of both men and women and had a large set of size differences.
Stony Brook Hospital has received a federal grant which they plan to use to purchase ten of the PARASLYDES for each hospital in Suffolk Count. In light of issues raised by the evacuation of three hospitals as a result of Hurricane Katrina, many of our local hospitals are determining how they will react to a major catastrophe within their facility that could require moving a large number of patients. Stony Brook plans to also purchase an undisclosed number of the PARASLYDEs over the initial 10 so as to make their evacuation plan realistic
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