Equipment issues have become “daunting,” Wiscasset Emergency Medical Services Director Erin Bean said Monday. “From supply chain issues, costs skyrocketing and companies buying equipment and not being able to continue to manufacture items that are needed to fix them is heinously frustrating,” she told Wiscasset Newspaper.

 

Bean’s email responses to questions showed what she has faced on multiple fronts, including issues with heart monitors, automatic electronic defibrillators (AEDs) and the ambulance fleet. Bean said the new ambulance has arrived but the second truck will need replacing. And that will take 24 to 36 months, she said. Wiscasset Newspaper contacted Bean after Town Manager Dennis Simmons wrote selectmen about how the town will fund the monitors and Bean posted on Wiscasset Ambulance Service’s Facebook page about the AEDs.

 

In her email replies, Bean explained the AEDs are in the schools, at the transfer station, public works, the town office, the fire station, the courthouse and Wiscasset Municipal Airport. The devices talk people through using them; and being a CPR instructor, she can train people to use them, she said. Her Jan. 26 Facebook post said 10 need replacing, she is looking for grants, and “figured I would reach out to the community for other ideas to get this vital piece of equipment replaced sooner.”

 

Then came a Facebook response from Atlantic Motorcar owner Bruce Howes offering to help. Bean told Wiscasset Newspaper, Howes is an example of what the community needs. She appreciates his willingness to help where he can, and his knowledge, she said. “He is always willing to help me brainstorm and figure out ways to make the Wiscasset EMS a topnotch service.”

 

Howes, an advanced emergency medical technician for Central Lincoln County Ambulance and Woolwich EMS, said in a phone interview Tuesday, he plans for his longtime Wiscasset business to buy Wiscasset an AED. Helping EMS is part of his business’s mission. Atlantic Motorcar bought Woolwich an AED last year. And Howes hopes other businesses join him in aiding Bean’s effort on the AEDs. “I believe in EMS. We all need it when we need it,” he said.

 

Simmons’ Feb. 1 report to selectmen called the department’s two cardiac monitors critical to lifesaving. They are having issues and will cost $48,568 to replace, Simmons wrote. Boothbay Region Ambulance Service is lending one, he said. He considered asking the board to tap contingency, but two new monitors would take it all, he said. EMS had $16,000 in capital funds; Simmons has authorized Bean to take a five-year, $10,733 a year lease-purchase deal.

 

Commenting on the BRAS loan, Bean said, “I'm grateful that they are willing to help us in our time of need. This is an issue that isn't our making. I'm terribly frustrated with the supply chain issues.”