A new form of personal protective equipment made its way to the northeast region as the creators of “The Tent” held introductory and training workshops for local emergency medical services personnel.
Founded by Rich Theriault — who is from Lynn — and Sean Barrett, The Tent is a transparent covering that fits over a gurney, offering continuous protection for EMS workers from the emergency site to the hospital.
The patent-pending, made-in-America device is designed to protect patients, EMS and healthcare professionals from airborne hazards during medical transportation and care.
The Tent comes in a flat package, designed so it can easily fit on an ambulance, and is set up like a pop-up-tent. When removed from the bag, the rods expand to create a tent shape and are then fastened into an attachment system, which is installed at the front of the gurney, near the patient’s head.
Brian Kimble, the vice president of business development at Alliant BioTech — a partner of the product — said the idea is to have the attachment for The Tent already on the gurneys at the station so that, when needed, it can be taken out of the bag and immediately fastened into the attachment.
The Tent is placed over the upper body of the patient and has multiple resealable access ports so medical care can be distributed while the product is fastened over the patient. The rods can also be adjusted so the product can best fit the patient’s size and position to ensure that cough splatter or any infections from the nose and mouth don’t spread to the medical workers.
During the workshop on Tuesday, local EMS personnel were timed while they performed four procedures on a dummy. During the first round, the four procedures were performed on a gurney without The Tent, and with The Tent the second round. The results showed that the times for the procedures with and without The Tent were all relatively the same.
Roland Courtemanche, who works for Atlantic Ambulance Services in Lynn, attended the training workshop at McNeilly EMS Educators in Danvers. He said The Tent was easy to use and would be a great addition for EMS everywhere.
“It’s pretty simple and straightforward and you have plenty of room to do procedures without any interference,” Courtemanche said. “We were moving a lot and it stayed in place.”
Courtemanche said he would like to use the new PPE option and bring it to his work in Lynn.
“It would be more comfortable, in a sense of reassuring myself that I don’t have to worry about getting sick, or my co-workers or someone in the hospital getting sick,” he said. “Now we have an added layer of protection for everyone. I can wheel someone into the hospital without contaminating a half of a dozen people on my way through.”
Theriault said when the pandemic began, EMS and hospitals were in search of a way to safely operate on a patient with some kind of protection from COVID-19.
Theriault said he began the construction of The Tent in July, and is currently seeking FDA approval. His plan is to export The Tent to countries struggling with the pandemic, including Nepal and India, saying that this easy and affordable device would offer an extra, reliable layer of protection for medical personnel.
“We went ahead and decided to design something that was really useful for this need,” Theriault said. “Something that would really work and be designed from the user out, with a collaboration with EMS people.”
The Tent has been evaluated several times by a number of trained, certified EMS workers, and Theriault said the majority of them are supportive of the product and think it is a good resource, especially with the ongoing pandemic in mind.
Theriault said he is working on partnering with emergency rooms and nurses, but is still figuring out the details, since the hospital beds tend to be wider than the gurneys The Tent was primarily designed for.
He hopes this product will spread to other EMS around the area, and eventually around the world, saying his product is “an easy and safe resource to provide protection to patients and their caretakers.”
The price for The Tent is around $40. More information can be found on the website at getthetent.com.
