The Daily Herald has an article describing three fire departments that got together to buy heart monitors in bulk. This allowed them each to realize significant cost savings.
By partnering with the fire departments in Elgin and Franklin Park, the Carpentersville Fire Department saved nearly $9,000 on new heart defibrillators that come with EKG monitors.
Carpentersville bought three of the machines at the total cost of $72,440.95 and they are scheduled to arrive in about a month, Schuldt said. The cost savings was the result of a volume discount.
Elgin ordered five of the same machines and two already are in service, Elgin Fire Chief John Fahy said.
Carpentersville’s machines will replace three others that are 10 years old and inside three ambulances.
Like Elgin has already done, Carpentersville officials will move the ones in the ambulances to three fire engines, turning them into “advanced life support engines,” Schuldt said.
So if an ambulance was tied up and a fire engine responded to a call instead, the machines would give the engines same sort of lifesaving capabilities as the ambulances.
Meanwhile, the partnership with Carpentersville is the latest example of Elgin reaching out to its neighbors.
Elgin is also taking over dispatching services with South Elgin and its fire department is taking calls in unincorporated Kane County that East Dundee had been handling for years.
“This is just another example of when we work together, the taxpayer wins,” Fahy said.
The complete article can be found HERE.
thanks Chris
