Lifesaving smartphone app launched in Deschutes County
Bend Fire Department and other agencies across Central Oregon respond to emergency calls all year long but a new mobile app called PulsePoint could help reduce response times.
“It’s the time between the 911 call and when we respond that has a very big impact on whether that person will survive,” Bend Fire Department Deputy Chief of EMS Operation, Steve O’Malley said.
Deschutes County 911 is spent about $20,000 to launch the program in Central Oregon.
The mobile app syncs with the county’s 911 dispatch center.
“Information is pushed to PulsePoint. It goes out to PulsePoint at exactly the same time it does to the responders so there no delay in getting someone nearby alerted that there might be help needed, Deschutes County 911 Director Steve Reinke said.
The app also allows registered users to locate nearby automatic external defibrillators (AEDs).
The PulsePoint partnership was formally launched Wednesday at Deschutes County 9-1-1. Representatives from Bend Fire & Rescue, the Black Butte Ranch Fire District, Cloverdale RFPD, Crooked River Ranch Fire & Rescue, Redmond Fire & Rescue, the Sisters-Camp Sherman Fire District and Sunriver Fire & Rescue announced the availability of the app.
“Public engagement can improve survival rates in cardiac arrest cases,” said Steve O’Malley, Bend Fire deputy chief of EMS operations. “The Bend Fire Department has had a long-standing mission of improving cardiac arrest survival and we’ve made incredible strides. Dispatchers are involved. Bend Police has a role.
“This is the tool that now allows us to also notify anyone in the public who is willing to do CPR in a public place. This technology is the next piece in the chain of survival,” he said.
Central Oregon residents can download the PulsePoint App through the iTunes Store™ and Google Play™. Businesses can download the PulsePoint AED App, which allows them to register locations of publicly accessible AEDs. Once validated, these crowdsourced AEDs will be visible in the PulsePoint app.
“We’re proud to have helped facilitate this partnership between the 9-1-1, our customer agencies and the public,” said 9-1-1 Service District Director Steve Reinke. “It’s critical that cardiac arrest patients receive CPR as soon as possible. Our dispatch computer system pushes notifications to PulsePoint at the same time EMS responders are dispatched, so someone close by who otherwise may not have known help was needed can render assistance, saving crucial seconds.”
PulsePoint Video: http://www.deschutes.org/911/page/pulsepoint
About the PulsePoint Foundation:
PulsePoint is a 501(c)(3) non-profit foundation based in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through the use of modern, location-aware mobile devices PulsePoint is building applications that work with local public safety agencies to improve communications with citizens and empower them to help reduce the millions of annual deaths from sudden cardiac arrest. Deployment of the PulsePoint app can significantly strengthen the “chain of survival” by improving bystander response to cardiac arrest victims in public settings and increasing the chance that lifesaving steps will be taken prior to the arrival of emergency medical services (EMS). PulsePoint is built and maintained by volunteer engineers at Workday, a leading provider of enterprise cloud applications and distributed by Physio-Control of Redmond, WA. Learn more at www.pulsepoint.org.
