The red cross recently contacted me and they have AED units on sale until the end of the year. One in particular is the Cardiac Science Powerheart G3 AED. It comes with an alarm cabinet and the total discount is almost $1000. This is a good price but these are still very expensive. It is possible to get a re-certified one (without an alarm cabinet) for around $600.
Do we want to try and get one of these for the Hive? I’ve attached a comparison chart from the red cross.
Again, why would we want one? Are we legally required to own one? Do
we get a discount on insurance for having one? Seems like a pretty
big waste of money to me.
The EMT inside says that any access to these types of things can help in the case that someone does have a cardiac emergency at the hive. I’ve experienced it first-hand in some ALS calls that I have been on where an AED has helped.
As someone who got lost a few times and made friends at the Spring Grove Fire House, the distance between us and a 24x7 staffed fire house with EMS is less than 500 feet. If we have a medical emergency, our response time from 911 dispatch is probably in the magnitude of 120-180 seconds.
Honestly, my bigger fear is first responder access and patient extraction should a medical emergency happen at the hive.
(BTW: If anyone wants First Aid or Adult and Juvenile BLS training, let me know).
I am leaning on the no side of things. While I do understand the importance of them; I am not certain we need one at the hive (yet). If we have many people down at the hive all of the time I would be more willing. That and considering the fire house is so close.
If you’re in the building and you’re calling 911 because someone else is injured, please send someone else out to street level and let the 911 dispatcher know that you’re doing so.
If you’re alone and you’re the injured party who’s calling 911, then yes, it’s probably wise to give them the door code over the phone.
Most places will allow door and access codes to be saved in the E911 system (I know that we can get them via our mobile terminal when dispatch has them – if not, we call fire out and they’ll either use their key to open the knox box or force open the door).
Adding the door code to E911 would be excellent. How do we go about that?
With all of the equipment at he Hive I like to error on the side of caution. These AED units are super easy to use even if you haven’t been trained on them and with an alarm cabinet it sets off an alarm just by opening it. That being said these things are not cheap and there is a firehouse just down the street.
I got this info from the Redcross because I recently got certified in CPR and AED and I inquired about the devices. I’m curious what the general group feels. Also slightly curious if we will see the younger people saying no while older people saying yes. For me it’s not having or having the superman complex but instead my fear of watching somebody I know die. I feel it’s mainly important to get feedback from people like Ian who have real experience with this type of thing.
The best way to do this is to call the non emergency number (or its equivalent) and ask the dispatcher what steps need to be taken – I know that in Morehead, there’s a form that needs to be sent back to the Police Dept before they’ll use it.
E911 probably isn’t going to work for Hive13 because we don’t have a “real” telephone.
It’s been a long time since I’ve mentioned it, but since we use Google Voice for the phone service, and the service is hack using Google chat and not traditional SIP, emergency calling DOESN’T work from the phone at Hive13. I’ve never dialed 911 to see what happens, but in general, Google Voice only does 10 digit dialing, so it may not be possible to dial 911 at all.
I think we may have also replaced the phones that had the DO NOT CALL 911 stickers on them, further compounding the issue.
Commercial VOIP providers are required to provide E911 service, and for most of them, you can fill out the forms online with your provider. If there is interest and funds, we can add a low cost service to the phone setup easily.
A simpler/cheaper solution might be to put an old mobile phone in the first aid kit, for emergency calls. It’s been ages since I’ve dialed 911 from a non-working mobile, but about 10 years ago it was completely possible to call 911 then. I don’t see why it’s not possible now. The only issue would be keeping the phone charged, but maybe we can just put a charger in the first aid box? We just have to hope that whatever emergency doesn’t also take down the electricity as well.
I like the idea of an AED unit on site. I realize that we have proximity to emergency responders, but considering the cost it seems an affordable expense…like insurance…I would rather have it and not need it then need it and not have it. If it is a good deal and we can afford it, then it seems prudent to have it available.