Pictured above:
Erika Adams, BSN, RN, District Health Coordinator, Estill County Schools with Jimmie Wise, Director/Paramedic, and Sheila Wise, Training Major/Paramedic, with the Estill County Emergency Medical Services. Estill County Schools received AEDs and first-aid training.
Mercy Health – Marcum and Wallace Hospital has been awarded $25,000 from the Kentucky Office of Rural Health (KORH) to support local education and training efforts focused on automated external defibrillators (AEDs), CPR and other advanced life-saving skills.
The funds were distributed through KORH’s Committed to the Community project, part of the larger Committed to the Heart Initiative which seeks to improve out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest survival rates among residents of the rural counties served by the state’s 28 designated critical access hospitals. Critical access hospitals and EMS services in their service region were invited to apply for funds to carry out projects that would fit with the goals of the Committed to the Heart Initiative.
Marcum and Wallace Hospital was able to match the $25,000 awarded by KORH and provided 17 AEDs to community partners in Estill, Lee, and Powell counties. To ensure community partners were able to fully operate their AEDs and provide the best response to an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest, Marcum and Wallace Hospital partnered with Estill County Emergency Medical Services Certified American Heart Association trainers to provide training to over 75 community partners, school employees and first responders.
“We’re excited that the hospital is as committed as our office is to improving out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest survival rates in our rural communities,” said KORH Director Ernie Scott. “The education and training they plan to offer — to health care providers, a range of first responders and other community members — is a benefit to the residents of these communities since we know that the chances of surviving an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest are significantly improved when trained bystanders are able to perform CPR and defibrillation.”