EMS Grants Help

2015 AHA guidelines can be the backbone of your funding request

The 2015 ECC and CPR guidelines provide an evidence-based foundation for requesting grants to improve out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival

The 2015 American Heart Association emergency cardiac care and CPR guidelines highlight how quick action, proper training, technology upgrades and teamwork can increase cardiac arrest survival. In addition, the AHA has released an annual snapshot of heart disease statistics for the first time in 50 years covering both domestic and global data. Of the 326,000 people who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) each year only 10.6 percent survive, despite EMS efforts.

Improving OHCA survival is a challenge for every EMS agency. The new AHA guidelines are a foundation of evidence-based methods to garner the necessary funds to assist your community in surviving OHCA. Here are three ways to get started.

1. Collaborate with the community
"Everyone has a role to play in the chain of survival — from bystanders to dispatchers, emergency responders to health care providers," said Dr. Mark A. Creager, president, American Heart Association.

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About the author

Rachel Stemerman is the product manager of data science and APIs at ESO. Prior to joining ESO, she completed her PhD in Health Informatics at the University of North Carolina as a National of Library Medicine fellow where her research focused on information extraction, machine learning, and data visualization for clinical decision support. Prior to entering her PhD program, she was the quality improvement coordinator for Orange County EMS where she currently is an active paramedic.