Quick Response, Citizen Engagement Improve Cardiac Outcomes by Fire Departments

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By Tammy Leytham

Prior to 2019, Naperville, Ill., had a cardiac arrest survival rate of about 9 percent. Last year, it was 21 percent, one of the highest of any fire department in the country, according to the Naperville Fire Department.

In those interim years, NFD introduced a special cardiac protocol called Advanced Cardiac Resuscitation. It has paid off in big ways. 

NFD received the Heart Safe Community Award in the large category (population over 100,000) from the IAFC EMS Section, the IAFC, and the PulsePoint Foundation during Fire-Rescue Med 2023.

 Bainbridge Island (Wash.) Fire Department was recognized with the Heart Safe Community Award in the small/mid-sized community category (population under 100,000).

The award, sponsored by the PulsePoint Foundation, recognizes fire-based EMS agencies with creative approaches to improving the quality of out-of-hospital treatment of heart disease, sudden cardiac arrest, and resuscitation efforts.

The Naperville and Bainbridge Island fire departments each demonstrated success in improving cardiac arrest survival rates in their communities by developing innovative training, pre-planning, and enhanced community training.

Strategies include:

• Access to emergency care

• Citizen alerting and bystander CPR

• High-performance team-based resuscitation

• Thorough data collection and quality review processes

On Bainbridge Island, the combo paid/volunteer fire department responds to about 3,000 emergency calls each year, 70 percent of which are emergency medical calls. All its staff are qualified at the Emergency Medical Technician level, and the department has eight Firefighter/Paramedics. Two paramedics respond to every advanced life support call, according to the department’s strategic plan. 

Naperville’s Advanced Cardiac Resuscitation response involves four specific steps:

• Mechanical CPR with continuous, uninterrupted compressions

• A Rescue Pod, an impedance threshold device that helps return blood back to the heart and the brain

• Patient Positioning, by putting their head up in a Semi-Fowler’s position

•   De-emphasizing epinephrine while using tools like capnography to diagnose respiratory depression and airway disorders, determining whether to defibrillate

Both NFD and BIFD offer monthly CPR/AED classes for residents to raise awareness and readiness throughout the community. Dispatcher-assisted CPR is another important tool in providing quick response.

Chief Mike McEvoy, chair of the IAFC EMS Section, said the award recipients demonstrate that fire department investments in training, response, teamwork, and citizen alerting can lead to substantial improvements in survival rates.

“Like fire prevention efforts, every dollar spent on making a community Heart Safe saves lives,” McEvoy said in an IAFC press release.

The PulsePoint Foundation, a nonprofit committed to increasing access to bystander CPR and delivery of AEDs, estimates 50,000 lives could be saved each year with faster response that delivers aid within five minutes of a heart attack victim collapsing.