State's Largest Ambulance Comes to Norman

By Gan Matthews, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Norman Regional Hospital and EMSstat now boast the largest ambulance in Oklahoma and it includes some hi-tech features.

The Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) is almost twice as large as a conventional ambulance at 10 feet tall and 29 feet long. MICU holds four seats, three conditioning units and a GPS system.

MICU also has snow chains that can be automatically deployed.

It can travel 700 miles without refueling, making it ideal for transporting patients from one hospital to another. Already the MICU has transported one patient from Norman to Dallas.

"We've been doing critical care transfers for over twenty years, and the needs of a critical care patient when you're taking them from one facility to another are much more specialized than your normal ambulance call, and so having a truck that's completely designed for those needs makes the care even better," said Eddie Sims, a critical care Paramedic.

NRH purchased the $300,000 unit with the help of a grant and donations from health care groups.