Excerpts from the ChicagoTribune.com:
The Naperville Fire Department received an International Association of Fire Chiefs’ 2017 Heart Safe Community award for developing programs and services for victims of sudden cardiac arrest.
Naperville fire officials accepted the award during the International Association of Fire Chiefs Fire Rescue Med conference in Nevada.
The department was cited for its aggressively implemented creative approaches in helping Naperville residents and visitors prevent and survive heart attacks.
Those approaches have included a CPR/AED program taught throughout the city by the department’s firefighter-paramedics; the placement of defibrillators in public buildings, parks and other locations where large numbers of people congregate; the implementation of the Pulse Point app, which alerts people who know CPR to emergencies where they might be able to help before paramedics arrive; and the recent implementation of the E-Bridge early notification application with Edward Hospital.
E-Bridge is a smart phone application that alerts the hospital while paramedics are still on the scene of a medical emergency. It gives emergency room personnel more time to prepare for a patient’s arrival, including preregistering the patient to allow hospital staff to take the patient directly into treatment.
E-Bridge also can send secure images and messages directly to the emergency room physician with future capability of sending short video.
The fire department last year had an overall Return of Spontaneous Circulation (ROSC) rate of 26 percent in the field, which is above the national average.
Of the patients who achieved ROSC, six were discharged from the hospital with no neurological deficit, representing a survival rate of 10.2 percent, which is above the national average of 8.2 percent.
