title: How obesity impacts patients health and EMS. EMS systems need to know how to handle the increase in bariatric patients.
abstract: Obesity is a serious disease that poses many problems for EMS. Morbidly obese patients do not fit on standard EMS equipment and the need for the safe transport of obese patients is rising. In addition to posing many logistical dilemmas, obese patients are prone to many serious medical conditions that are likely to increase their exposure to EMS systems. Prepare yourself and your program for the management and transport of obese patients by designing a safe patient transport model and policy with protocols geared toward the obese patient.
authors.affiliation: Vitalink/Airlink, Wilmington, NC, USA. kcollopy@colgatealumni.org
authors.forename: Kevin T
authors.initials: KT
authors.lastname: Collopy
authors.forename: Sean
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kivlehan
authors.forename: Scott R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Snyder
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D009765:Obesity / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D014481:United States / Q000453:epidemiology