Olney Hamilton Hospital gets funds for ambulance cot lift kits

Olney Hamilton Hospital received $108,250 March 25 from Young County Commissioners to retrofit four ambulances with power lifts that can handle heavier patients.

Hospital Chief Executive Michael Huff asked the commissioners for the funds from the American Rescue Plan Act in a March 14, 2022, letter. He reiterated his request in person at a called session. Huff thanked the commissioners for a grant in January of $250,000 for a new ambulance and said the power lifts were the last piece “to get all of our ambulances up to speed.”

“In the old days, you’d bring the patient upon the stretcher, then you’d have to hold the stretcher and kick the legs up, bend down and lift it up, and you lose more people with back injuries than you save when you are getting them in the truck,” Huff said. “Now they have power lifts ... and you roll the cot up on that, and it lifts it and puts it in, and for the heavyweight people, that’s really something that we need to get.”