Giles County commissioners approve purchase of new cardiac monitors for EMS

GILES COUNTY, Tenn. (WKRN) — After months of back and forth, the Giles County Commission approved funding for new cardiac monitors for its emergency medcal service crews.

Willow Chavez, Giles County EMS chief, said she felt a huge weight lifted off her shoulders after county commissioners gave the green light, voting 14 to 7 for EMS to purchase a new fleet of cardiac monitors using money from the county’s capital improvement account.

In a recent social media post regarding the vote to fund cardiac monitors, Giles County District 7 Commissioner Carman Brown said confusion about the necessity, who’s responsible for choosing the type of monitors and oversight of Capital Projects Fund 171 is what led to “dragged out” discussion in committee meetings.

“All credit to our county commissioners and our county executive for doing their due diligence,” Chavez said. “I never get offended or worried about them asking questions. I think that’s their job, and they’re being responsible. This was a huge purchase for this county. At the end of the day, I respect that they’re trying to do the right thing.”

It was an effort Chavez had been working at since becoming chief of the department back in March when she realized that eight of their 10 monitors were nearing the end of their lifespan.

“It was definitely a relief,” Chavez said. “It’s very important. I would say in 99.9% of calls, the cardiac monitor is going to get used. We’re really excited and incredibly thankful that our commissioners saw the need and that they trust us enough to listen to what we have to say.”

The 10 new monitors cost $476,990 with an annual maintenance cost of $19,000, according to a filing by the Giles County Commission.

Giles County EMS will be switching from the Zoll Series X cardiac monitor to the new Lifepack 35. Chavez said the updated product will be game-changing for her staff.

“The user interface is so intuitive,” Chavez said. “It has all kinds of things that reduce cognitive load and make those decisions happen a little bit faster. One of the big things, too, is that we basically have the ability to transmit or live stream what’s on the monitor to a physician in the ER or in a cath lab or wherever so that they can see real-time what’s going on with the patient. Especially being as rural as we are, being able to save those minutes really makes a difference.”