2017 Wellness Promotion Policy Annual Report

The School District of Palm Beach County - Automatic External Defibrillator Program

Over the past 11 years the District has distributed and maintained automatic external defibrillators (AED’s) in each school site and most of our facilities. During that time rescuers used the AED’s to save 6 adults and 3 student’s lives. Some of the adults were District employees however several were members of the general public that were on campus for a variety of reasons.

History

In 2004, the School Board approved the funding for the purchase an AED for each school site.  In conjunction with this funding, the school board developed an AED policy that governed the use, maintenance and training requirements for AED use here in the District.

Shortly thereafter the Health Services Specialist in collaboration with Risk Management reviewed the board’s policy and initiated a program that would assist schools to become compliant with the policy.  Compliance involved working with schools to designate AED site coordinators and develop and implement training for the AED site coordinators and emergency response teams.  This was completed in school years 2006, 2007, and 2008.

Annually, Risk Management reevaluates the status of the current program to reflect changes in Florida’s laws and industry standards.  As a result, they determined that the number AED’s at each location was inadequate and did not meet the American Heart Association’s three minute recommendation.  This recommendation states that a responder has three minutes to retrieve the AED and begin cardio-pulmonary resuscitation to afford successful results.

Safety Technicians from Risk Management and Facility Coordinators spent the next year evaluating each of the Districts’ 185 campuses and determined the need for hundreds of additional AED’s.  Based on the evaluations conducted during the previous year it was determined in 2006 that the District would need 600 additional AED’s to meet current standards.  The school board approved the additional funding and the District purchased 600 Cardiac Science AED’s.

The increase of AED’s raised concerns in Risk Management to ensure that they were properly maintained. An online program, AED Tracking Program (Database), developed by the District’s IT Department provides a system for tracking AED locations at each school as well as the status of its equipment. This has become an invaluable resource as both AED manufacturers have had several software updates during the past few years. The AED Tracking Program made it easy for District and manufactures representatives to ensure that all AED’s were maintained in a state of readiness.

Impact

As stated earlier, District AED’s have saved 9 lives. The person’s saved range in age from 15-72 years old.

On April 15, 2009, a District AED helped save Ms. Claire Dunlap’s life.  At that time, Claire was a 15-year-old sophomore varsity softball player for the American Heritage-Delray Stallions.  The Stallions had just finished 5–4 win against West Boca Community High and were huddled together after the win.  Claire collapsed in the huddle and appeared to be having a seizure.  Ms. Sarah Donner the trainer for West Boca Community High at the time, came to Claire’s aide, assessed the situation and began to do CPR.  Two paramedics were watching another game on a nearby field and came over to assist.  One determined that she was in sudden cardiac arrest and that the CPR was not working.  He told the trainer to get an AED and she retrieved one from a nearby golf cart.  The paramedics put the pads on Ms. Dunlap and it delivered three shocks.  The third shock put Claire’s heart back into rhythm.

2016-2017 Update

The AEDs used throughout the District have a life expectancy of 8-10 years.  As a result, in the past few years Safety Technicians and AED Coordinators started noticing that the Charge Paks for the Medtronic AEDs were only lasting 5-6 months vs. the 18 months designated by the expiration date.  Our first suspicion was that this was a manufacturer’s defect.  However, research has indicated that the reason for the premature expiration of the Charge-Paks is the aging components in the AEDs.

Since this is lifesaving technology, the Risk & Benefits Management Department recommended that the aging AEDs be replaced over the next five years.  The FY-2017 department budget included $120,000 to start replacing the failing Medtronic AEDs.  To date, 140 Medtronic AEDs have been replaced with new Cardiac Science, Powerheart G3 AEDs.

During FY-2018 the remaining 85 Medtronic AEDs will be replaced with the same Cardiac Science AEDs.