The following is from an East Pierce Fire and Rescue press release:

East Pierce Fire and Rescue has been awarded the 2013 Heart Safe Community Award in the small community category (population less than 100,000) by the International Association of Fire Chief’s EMS Section and Physio-Control, Inc. The annual award recognizes organizations with creative approaches to implementing and maintaining systems to prevent and treat cardiac-related diseases within their communities.

East Pierce Medical Services Officer, Battalion Chief Jeff Moore accepted the award on behalf of the department at the Fire-Rescue MED Conference in Las Vegas, Tuesday. Agencies and systems throughout the United States competed for the honor.

Tulsa Fire Department of Oklahoma received the award in the large community category (population over 100,000).

East Pierce was selected for the efforts the department has made over the past two years implementing a comprehensive cardiac arrest resuscitation program that has dramatically improved cardiac arrest survival rates within the community. The department reports that cardiac arrest survival for witnessed ventricular fibrillation patients has climbed from 10 percent, in the 2006 to 2010 average, to 41 percent in the past two years.

“Survival is defined as discharge from the hospital, neurologically intact,” Moore said.

The comprehensive program included implementation of “high-performance” CPR training for the firefighters, quality improvement programs, debriefs following all cardiac arrest calls and participation in a state-wide cardiac arrest registry that allows the department to compare itself to others in the state.

In addition, East Pierce has partnered with its primary hospital to provide 12-lead ECG acquisition and transmission to activate the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and initiated a hypothermia program.

A key component in improving survival rates is teaching citizens CPR. East Pierce decided to augment an already strong citizen CPR program by launching a free one-hour “Hands-Only” CPR training program targeting older, at-risk target populations who do not need full CPR certifications for employment.

“This program has been a great success, with more than 150 trained in the last quarter of 2012,” Moore said.

East Pierce also provides American Heart Association CPR training for more than 600 adults per year at semi-monthly “citizen” classes for the general public.

For many years, the department has provided free CPR training in schools located throughout the fire district. The department expanded that program to provide a refresher for 10th grade students in three different high schools.

“East Pierce Fire and Rescue now provides training for 1,500 students per year,” Moore said. “CPR training programs have resulted in an overall bystander CPR rate of 52 percent for the past two years. For witnessed collapses, the bystander CPR rate is even higher, at 59 percent.”

According to the American Heart Association, for every minute of delay in starting CPR on someone in cardiac arrest, the chance of survival falls by 10 percent.

“Bystander CPR doubles a victim’s chance of survival,” Moore said.

The timing for implementing a new resuscitation program was challenging, as the fire department had seen a 25 percent drop in tax revenues by 2011, and revenues were projected to continue to fall. Pay freezes had been enacted and existing programs had already been cut.

In spite of the department’s financial challenges, the leadership team and line personnel embraced the proposed development of a comprehensive resuscitation program, approving overtime for training, technology to improve CPR quality and the staffing of a long-vacant Medical Services Officer position to coordinate the program.

“Although the economy made it more difficult to implement, this was these were the right decisions to make for our community,” said East Pierce Fire Chief Jerry E. Thorson.

“We would like to thank Physio-Control and the IAFC for providing this opportunity for departments across the country to apply for this award and to share their experiences inimproving cardiac arrest and patient outcomes,” Moore said.