During a busy holiday weekend, Marc Mercado, plant mechanic, and Brad Lloyd, maintenance engineer, were honored by caregivers at Park City Mountain Resort for responding immediately to improve access at the entrance to two overflow ski clinic trailers. The trailers support skiers and snowboarders needing medical attention after being injured on the slopes.
Marc Mercado and Brad Lloyd
Marc says he and Brad were happy to quickly add wheelchair ramps at the trailer entrances, which are located next to Park City Mountain Medical Clinic and Canyons Village Mountain Medical Clinic. Kent Shelton, equipment systems specialist, also helped speed the effort along.
“The trailers provide an additional overflow for the medical ski clinics during COVID-19, but without ramps the entrances are a tripping hazard and not safely accessible,” says Sue Knudson, RN, nurse coordinator for the Park City ski clinics. Sue says each trailer had to be leveled, which made it difficult to access.
She says. “Not only was it hard to step inside, we have patients in wheelchairs that need access, as well as injured patients who need a place to wait and stay warm. We really appreciated the help from these caregivers to provide the ramps sooner than later for our guests.”
Marc and Brad support clinics at Heber Valley and Park City, and Marc says they worked fast thanks to some good thinking. “To build a ramp takes money and time,” says Marc, who adds ramps usually take three to five days depending on the vendor and a few hundred dollars in cost. “We realized we already had a ramp in storage at Heber Valley Clinic that we could install at one of the Park City trailers, so we were happy to bring it over and get it up and running.”
“I was so impressed that Marc and Brad showed up the same day I put in a ticket, and they made it happen,” says Sue. “Marc is not only a good, dedicated hard-worker, but he’s kind and friendly to everyone. I think very highly of him.”
Marc says Kent visited with a vendor to get the second ramp up and running within a few days.
Marc says, “I like being proactive and looking out for the needs of our community. For me it’s a great feeling to work in healthcare and put in a little extra effort to support our patients.”