EMS Toronto - Saving Lives… Changing Lives
Problem:
Toronto Emergency Medical Services (EMS) provides emergency ambulance service to the City of Toronto. When somebody calls 911 for a medical emergency, Toronto EMS paramedics assess, treat, and transport the patient to a hospital emergency department. Toronto EMS is the largest municipal land ambulance service in Canada, and the sole emergency ambulance service in Toronto. They are second in size, only to New York City, in all of North America.
EMS Chief Farr wanted to reduce costs, improve efficiencies and meet today’s environmental standards with a new fleet cleaning solution and handed the challenge to Curt Hering, Supervisor of Equipment Services. EMS’s current cleaning problems consisted of:
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Employees having to hand wash the ambulance after a sometimes very stressful shift.
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Wasted Resources due to time required to wash by hand – 30 minutes or more for one ambulance, leaving less time for critical cleaning of patient lifting equipment.
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Wasted facility space due to dedicating expensive facility space solely for vehicle washing
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High Utility Costs due to manual wash techniques – up to 100 gallons of water per vehicle and use of aggressive chemicals.
Solution:
Understanding EMS’s consideration for the environment, their need for vehicle cleaning at the end of every shift, and facility constraints, Awash provided Toronto EMS with the PowerbrusH2O together with a custom installed track system. The Single Brush is designed for the unique construction of an ambulance and is one of the most cost effective and eco friendly solutions that exist today. And in terms of equipment footprint, the system takes up only 16 sq. ft. of floor space and can easily be rolled away.
Result:
The system installation resulted in higher employee morale since employees now spend less than 5 minutes cleaning the ambulance. Utility costs were reduced by 75% as the Single Brush system uses (less than)2 5 gallons of water per ambulance washed and a bio-degradable soap was introduced as the brush does the cleaning, not the chemicals. The custom overhead track system, combined with an extremely small equipment footprint, allowed the EMS the versatility to use the wash space to clean patient lifting equipment in the same area, reducing carbon footprint by not having to move the vehicle to another area or having to use more real estate. The PowerbrusH2O also is soft and safe enough for all the electronics and lights that are prevalent on an ambulance.
Curt Hering is more than impressed with the ease of use, eco-friendly components of minimal electricity, less than a half bath tub of water used per wash and bio-degradable soap. “We have had the machine for over a year now without a single issue as it gets a work out every day. We are so impressed we are now considering Awash’s Waste Water Treatment system to become a complete environmentally friendly EMS center.”
