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Determine the Need
AED programs consist of much more than
buying an AED and hanging it in an accessible location in your facility.
Good programs have widespread internal and external support and a program
based on sound principles. One of the first steps is to determine
whether your facility needs the protection an AED offers.
Generally, a decision to implement an AED
program is based on how many people use your facility, for what period of
time, and how far your facility is from emergency medical services. Plan
worst-case. Think of an auditorium or concert arena that is located three
minutes away from the nearest ambulance service. Usually only six people
staff the arena but at times one thousand fans may purchase tickets to a
show. Evaluate how long it would take the ambulance to arrive if a
cardiac arrest occurred on the night of a concert, when the parking lot
was crowded, when traffic nearby was heavy and when the only ambulance was
out on another call. Far fetched? Maybe, but cardiac accidents tend not
to happen when things are going right–only when everything seems to be
going wrong.
The more people that use your facility
and the farther away it is from emergency medical services, the greater
the likelihood that you could profit from an AED program. One well known
company installs AEDs in any of its branches where fifteen or more people
work on a full-time basis.
Do some research to see how other
facilities like yours have handled the issue of AEDs. Not that you need
to follow their lead but it will give you some idea of whether you are on
the right track. You may also have some history on which you can rely.
If you know of a case or two where people suffered cardiac arrest (or
something like it) chances are that similar incidents will occur in the
future. Of course, if the ambulance always arrives within a minute or
two, maybe medical help will always be close at hand. The chances of
reviving a person in cardiac arrest go down dramatically with each minute
following collapse.
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