New fire department cardiac monitors approved

By Lisa Brody

Bloomfield Township trustees on Monday, December 13, unanimously approved the purchase of seven new cardiac monitors by the Bloomfield Township Fire Department, with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant paying for 90 percent of the purchase.

Bloomfield Township Fire Chief John LeRoy explained they had applied for a FEMA grant, and were awarded it in August, to purchase new cardiac monitors. “Our monitors are 11 years old,” he said.

LeRoy said the federal funding is a “90-10 grant,” meaning that FEMA pays for 90 percent of the purchase, leaving Bloomfield Township to pay for the remainder of the purchase, which he said had been budgeted. The total budget for seven new Stryker cardiac monitors is $283,752, with FEMA funding $257,956.36, and the township's share $25,795.64.

“These seven cardiac monitors/defibrillators are like 'docs in a box,'” LeRoy said. “They have all the required accessories we need in the field. It transmits all the information to the doctor at the hospital so the doctor has it when we arrive at the hospital.”

The purchase price includes all the required accessories, a data plan to transmit to the doctors and hospitals and a service plan for maintenance.

LeRoy said there are three manufacturers for cardiac monitors; Stryker, Zoll and Phillips. Bloomfield Township currently has Stryker cardiac monitors, he said, and for 11 years, “we have had no issues. They are built to last. When we evaluated all of them, we came down to Stryker and Zoll. For what we came down to what we were looking for, we came to the conclusion Stryker was what we should keep with.”

Trustees voted 7-0 to approve the purchase.