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How To Provide Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) For Your Community

First it is important to establish a team that will champion, plan and implement your PAD effort. Members of the team may include a program administrator, medical director (MD), emergency services representatives, public health representatives, representatives from the American Heart Association, American Red Cross and other appropriate organizations, local reporters, a survivor or family member of a loved one lost to SCA, and others as appropriate.

Key elements in your program plan will include:

  • Developing a plan, including budgeting, fundraising, training, hiring and promoting the program
  • Establishing a realistic budget for AED purchases, training and refresher training, salaries and other personnel costs, program management software, and other ongoing program costs
  • Developing a fundraising plan for the program, and implementing the plan
  • Devising a plan for strategic placement of AEDs
  • Designing your policies and procedures
  • Acquiring and deploying the AEDs and other supplies
  • Promoting the program with your community-both to garner support and inform them when the program is launched. This may include print and Web announcements, posters, press releases, and a media event in which the program is "kicked off" and reporters are invited to cover the story.
  • Ongoing program management: An AED is not something you can just hang on the wall and forget about. It's important to have a carefully thought-out plan for program oversight to make sure the AEDs and responders are ready for rescue at all times.

    Program management may include:

    • Scheduling and tracking training and refresher training
    • Documenting AED locations
    • Tracking maintenance and supply replenishment, and other activities
    • Providing trained responders with online refresher training
    • Purchasing a software program to assist the program administrator in tracking the various elements of a successful AED program
  • Program evaluation and quality assurance, including case review to document how rescuers handle events, tracking the number of rescuers involved, justifying costs of early defibrillation, and providing data for analysis to determine trends and identify how to modify procedures to help improve survival rates. Revise your policies and procedures as you learn from any experience using the AEDs, or with updates in best medical practices, equipment and protocols.

Establishing a community PAD takes time, hard work and commitment. Making the difference between life and death for your community's citizens brings great rewards-more lives saved from sudden cardiac arrest.

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