Baptist Health Paducah enhances public safety with PulsePoint AED app partnership

PADUCAH, KY (June 3, 2024) - In a mission to enhance community health and safety, Baptist Health Paducah is excited to announce its partnership with the PulsePoint AED app, aiming to track and map out Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) across the community.

Baptist Health Paducah Chest Pain Program Coordinator, Amy Osbron, BSN, RN, CPHQ, has made it her goal to map our AED’s in and around the McCracken County region after realizing the need for awareness. In her role, Osbron spends a lot of time out in the community spreading education on the signs and symptoms of a heart attack and what to do if someone is experiencing those signs. Doing so, she learned a barrier for people is knowing where to get an AED and how to use it.

According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests occur outside of the hospital each year. When a sudden cardiac arrest emergency strikes, locating and using and AED within the first three minutes can increase survival rates over 80%.

“This partnership with PulsePoint AED, dispatch and Mercy EMS will help improve awareness and allow our community access to a map that will help them quickly locate a nearby AED,” said Osbron. “This will ultimately help others play a crucial part in saving a life.”

The PulsePoint AED app empowers both the public and emergency medical services (EMS) to quickly locate AEDs during critical moments. The technology allows individuals in the community to identify the nearest AEDs in real-time, potentially saving valuable time in life threatening situations.

Mercy EMS is another crucial part of our partnership because the app seamlessly integrates with their emergency response systems, ensuring that when a 911 call is placed reported an individual in cardiac arrest, both the location of the incident and nearby AEDs are available to the EMS team.

“The PulsePoint technology will allow us to increase survivability of our citizens,” said EMS Director, Jeremy Jeffrey, with Mercy Regional EMS. “The greatest chance of survival in a cardiac arrest emergency is early defibrillation, so being able to guide people to the nearest AED during that initial 911 call, empowers our community to take meaningful action to increase survival in and around the McCracken County area.”

Baptist Health Paducah encourages all members of the community to download the PulsePoint AED app and to help locate additional AEDs in the community and submit them within the app. To learn more, visit PulsePoint | Next Generation AED Registry.