The University of Illinois Hospital and Health Service System recently became the seventh partner participating in the Medtronic Foundation’s HeartRescue Project, which aims to improve cardiac arrest survival rates by 50 percent in their respective states. Other partners include the Universities of Arizona, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Washington; Duke University; and American Medical Response, which is working to improve cardiac arrest survival rates in its practices nationwide.
Working with the University of Illinois on the Illinois HeartRescue Collaborative is the Chicago Fire Department, Chicago EMS and the Illinois Department of Public Health. With $3.75 million in grants from the Medtronic Foundation to AMR and the University of Illinois, the collaborative will target both rural and urban Latino and African-American communities in the state.
“The disparities in SCA survival rates are both a major challenge and an opportunity for the people of Illinois,” Terry Vanden Hoek, M.D., professor and chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Illinois, who will serve as project lead, said in a news release. “We are poised to change those rates. We are looking forward to the impact we can make through our partnerships and with the timely support from the HeartRescue Project.”
Mapping AEDs in Minnesota
As we’ve discussed in previous issues, a major hurdle in increasing bystander use of public access defibrillators is that there is no comprehensive list identifying where the nation’s estimated 1 million AEDs are located. Various groups are trying different strategies to address that, including a contest run by University of Pennsylvania researchers that challenged members of the public to locate as many devices as they could for the chance to win $10,000.
The folks at Allina Medical Transportation in St. Paul, Minn., are tackling the issue another way. They’re working with Atrus Inc., a Boca Raton, Fla.-based company, which has created the Atrus National AED Registry and AED Link. Through the registry, AED owners can register their devices for free and receive notifications about necessary AED maintenance. Through AED Link, EMS agencies and communications centers can also link their CAD systems to the registry, enabling dispatchers to immediately view locations of public access defibrillators. Launched in 2006, the Atrus registry has information on nearly 13,000 AEDs, and that number is growing daily, says Elliot Fisch, Atrus co-founder and CEO.
In addition to alerting dispatchers about the location of nearby AEDs, AED Link has other features designed to make sure the devices are actually used. For instance, once an AED is listed with the registry, Atrus sends notifications about upcoming expirations of batteries and electrode pads to AED owners. AED owners can also supply contact information on employees who are trained and willing to use the devices. When a cardiac arrest occurs, AED Link automatically notifies workplace “responders” via text or phone call so they can get the AED to the patient quickly.
“When 911 centers get cardiac arrest calls, AED Link automatically looks to see if a device has been registered within 1,200 feet of the patient, and then displays on a screen the location of the device to a 911 calltaker,” Fisch says. “The system also sends a text message or cell phone call to an individual or individuals who have agreed to consider bringing the device to sudden cardiac arrest victims.”
Still, there are challenges. About 400 AEDs are listed with the registry in central Minnesota, far fewer than are out there, says Charles Lick, M.D., Allina’s medical director. Allina has placed 2,000 AEDs in the community through a program called Heart Safe, but the process of identifying the AEDs and getting them registered is time-consuming, he adds. (To register, AED owners are asked to supply information about the location of the device, the manufacturer, serial number and expiration dates.)
Frustratingly, Allina has had at least two cardiac arrest calls in which AED Link notified 911 calltakers that an AED was nearby—but the arrest happened after hours, and the devices were inaccessible behind locked doors, Lick says.
Although registering AEDs is free to device owners, 911 centers have to pay for AED Link. The cost to a 911 center covering a city of about 500,000 would be approximately $45,000 for three years, Fisch says. That fee pays for an annual subscription linking the CAD system to the registry. The link is web-based—no need to install software—and is set up so that it’s running continuously on a flatscreen in the dispatch center. There are no extra steps for dispatchers.
Allina Medical Transportation, which implemented AED Link in January, is not paying for use of the system during the first two years of operations, Fisch says. Other EMS systems using AED Link include Regina Health Region in Saskatchewan, Canada; Collier County EMS in Florida; and Contra Costa Health Services in California.
Fisch is asking EMS to get involved in building the registry by encouraging businesses to register their AEDs. For more information, visit nationalaedregistry.com.
EMS Urged to Connect Homeless Vets With Services
The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs is asking EMS providers to help connect the nation’s estimated 67,000 homeless veterans with resources and services available to them. Via the VA’s Homeless Veterans Initiative—which aims to eliminate veteran homelessness by 2015—EMS providers can order brochures, wallet cards, hats, bandanas and other merchandise at no charge. They are urged to give out these materials, which include the toll-free phone number for the National Call Center for Homeless Veterans, to homeless vets they encounter.
Visit va.gov/homeless/materials_center.asp#giveaway for more information, or send an e-mail to VAHomeless_Veteran_Outreach@va.gov.
Two Honored With Pinnacle EMS Leadership Awards
Fitch & Associates has named Tom Judge and Norris W. Croom III as winners of Pinnacle Leadership Awards.
Judge, executive director of LifeFlight of Maine, was honored with the Pinnacle Exemplary Leadership Award, given in recognition of an EMS community leader’s efforts in advancing out-of-hospital care and transport. “Mr. Judge has an unbelievable litany of activities, achievements and works in progress,” says Fitch & Associates partner Christine Zalar.
“Passion for the patient has always been a driver for the tireless hours Tom spends serving his program, foundation and state at the national level, and internationally on EMS and air medical related projects,” she adds. “His feverish drive for improving the system—all the moving parts—is contagious.”
Similar honors went to the winner of the Pinnacle Emerging Leadership Award, Norris W. Croom III, deputy chief of the Castle Rock (Colo.) Fire and Rescue Department. “Chief Croom is being honored for tirelessly promoting teamwork, collaboration and cooperation among emergency responders regardless of organization type or affiliation,” says Jay Fitch, Ph.D., committee member and founder of Fitch & Associates.
“The nature of emergency response is unpredictable, complicated and highly stressful, often creating conflict among emergency organizations,” Fitch says. “It was Chief Croom’s simple yet profound philosophy of ‘Can’t we all just get along?’ that ultimately led the committee to choose him.”
Both awards were presented at the Pinnacle EMS Leadership Forum in Colorado Springs in July.
