Florida County EMS outreach plan places defibrillators on police cars
Palm Beach (FL) County Fire Rescue (PBCFR), in unincorporated Palm Beach County, has embarked on a program that would have automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) on police units responding in its jurisdiction. PBCFR, which protects 560 miles and 10 cities that contract for fire/rescue protection from the county, covers the area from 30 fire stations with a fleet of 38 paramedic rescues. Every engine and ladder company, which carries an AED, responds with the rescues to assist or as a first responder if the first-due rescue is on an alarm. The Palm Beach International Airport also has a paramedic rescue and an engine company that is equipped with an AED.
PBCFR recently has launched an outreach program that can save additional lives of area residents and visitors. The American Heart Association estimates that 100,000 or more individuals suffering acute onset of cardiac distress and cardiac arrest might be saved annually with earlier defibrillation or electrical counter shocks, points out Lieutenant Gary L. Weiss, who has been with PBCFR for 16 years and is the command officer of Station 33. Historically, Weiss explains, the police have arrived at emergencies first because they are on patrol in the neighborhoods.
A major component of the outreach program is to have the local police departments within its jurisdiction equipped with and trained to use an AED. PBCFR purchased the AEDs with grant monies. Police departments that join the program are trained, given the AEDs on a “permanent-loan” basis, and medically supervised by PBCFR`s medical director. At present, the police departments are awaiting a decision from the Police Standards Commission with regard to whether the program`s four-hour AED training course meets the guidelines for recertification educational credits. Course components include a review of first-responder, infection-control, CPR, as well as the AED training.
As of August 1996, one municipality had AEDs on its police vehicles. Another department has begun training, and several other departments are preparing to begin training. In addition, negotiations are underway for implementing the program with the beach patrol and the sheriff`s department, which covers the majority of the county. Should every police agency and the beach patrol become part of the program, Palm Beach County citizens will have a trained first responder police officer equipped with an AED respond within one to two minutes and a fire rescue paramedic respond within five minutes.
The response of the Town of Lake Clarke Shores (about 3,000 residents and 10 police officers), which has signed onto the program and has completed training, has been enthusiastic. “It`s a terrible feeling not being able to do more than CPR when the equipment is out there to save more lives,” related one police sergeant. He added that the department had looked into an AED program before the PBCFR plan was proposed but found the cost would have been prohibitive.
Palm Beach County Fire Rescue is the first fire department in southern Florida to involve the police in what was once considered solely “the Rescue`s job.”
[Submitted by Gary L. Weiss, command officer of Station 33, Palm Beach County (FL) Fire Rescue.]
