So your company is purchasing an AED, now what? Slap it on the wall in a cabinet and call it a day, right? WRONG.
Have you thought of the following?
Have you made a public announcement to all employees that there is now an AED onsite and where it is located?
Did you install your AED unit in a strategic spot where it is located in the most centralized location of your building and where it can be brought back to the victim within 1-2 minutes upon collapse?
Did you give your employees the chance to attend an in-service to go over what an AED is and what it does and how to use it? Did the company that you purchased the AED off of offer this type of training?
Have you thought of getting a core group of people (or whoever is interested) CPR trained? Or even putting together a safety committee if you don’t already have one?
Have you determined who will be doing the monthly checks on the AED unit? Maybe an HR or a safety manager?
Do you have an Emergency Action Plan in place in case of a First Aid emergency, where it be a Sudden Cardiac Arrest or any other medical emergency? And has this plan been communicated to your employees?
These are all important items to consider when you implement an AED into your workspace. The last thing that you want to do is purchase an AED just to say you have one on site, slap it on the wall, and forget about it.
Even though AEDs are super easy to maintain and pretty much fool-proof to use, it is still very important to do two main things:
Make sure that you maintain your unit by checking it monthly
And also very important to make your employees feel comfortable with the unit in the chances that they would need to use it aka…get your employees CPR certified!
If you have any questions or concerns with any of the points listed above, please feel free to reach out to us via email (info@sq1med.com) or phone (724.779.2278) and we would be happy to assist you.