Fire Department Could Get New Defibrillators

On Monday, the Pasadena City Council will deliberate on a plan to lease  emergency response monitors/defibrillators, used during emergency medical incidents on patients experiencing sudden cardiac arrest and requiring continuous cardiac monitoring. 

Under the plan, the city’s fire department will enter into a contract with Stryker Sales Corporation, a Portage, Michigan-based company that manufactures medical equipment, for the lease of the monitors/defibrillators. Also included in the proposed contract is the necessary preventative maintenance services for the equipment.

The new leased units are intended to replace aging equipment that have been in service for over 12 years and whose model has been discontinued by the manufacturer, according to a fire department report. 

The council could authorize the City Manager to enter into a five-year contract with the company for an amount up to $1 million. 

The Pasadena Fire Department responds to approximately 20,000 calls for service each year, with approximately 16,000 of those calls categorized as medical emergencies which require Advanced Life Support (ALS) levels of care. The department said the top three most commonly dispatched incident types in 2019 were ALS-level falls, shortness of breath, and chest pain, or heart attacks. 

Currently, the department has 28 monitors/defibrillators equipped on frontline and reserve apparatus and at the Rose Bowl Stadium, to be used during emergency medical incidents. With the model discontinued, the manufacturer will no longer provide repair, support and preventative maintenance services for the current equipment. In addition, a Department of the Army Technical Bulletin lists life expectancy of a defibrillator at eight years. 

“Part of the Department’s inventory has exceeded the recommended life expectancy,” the fire department said in a report for the City Council. “As technology is updated and improved, leasing medical equipment will help to ensure our firefighters are provided with current and well-maintained equipment to improve the quality of rapid intervention on cardiac emergencies, and to provide exceptional service to the community.” 

The fire department also has 11 gurneys and 25 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) that require annual preventative maintenance. Along with the recommendation for the Stryker Sales Corporation contract, the department is seeking authority to issue a multi-year contract to standardize preventative maintenance services for the AEDs.

The company has been providing maintenance and repair services for gurneys, AEDs and monitors/defibrillators for the past four fiscal years, the department said.