Hospital highlights - Support with defibrillators, trainers

Colfax Booster Club members Sheri Hatley, left, and Jody White, right, present funds to Denise Fowler, Chief Clinical Officer at Whitman Hospital, for the purchase of an Automated External Defibrillator.

With the kickoff of fall sports we again look at how Whitman Hospital and Medical Center can provide support to our communities. One of our initiatives began last fall with helping to provide an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at Colfax High School and at Jennings Elementary. The two units were placed at both schools last fall with the financial support from Colfax Boosters and WHMC in an effort to provide an additional safeguard for our community. Training for staff members was conducted at both schools with the help of EMS providers and WHMC staff.

The placement of AEDs in schools and public sporting venues is a growing national trend. A study in December of 2006 identified that at that time over half of the Washington State High Schools had at least one AED on the school grounds to help treat Sudden Cardiac Arrests.

We will be working with all schools in our district to garner both financial support and training in an effort to provide additional AEDs throughout the area.

A Sudden Cardiac Arrest is the sudden onset of an abnormal and lethal heart rhythm, the leading cause of death in the United States. Over 300,000 individuals per year are afflicted.

Schools are responsible for a dense population of children and adults, and are frequently the site of sporting events and other community gatherings. Studies suggest that up to 1 in 25 schools will have a cardiac medical emergency on school grounds each year. Approximately two-thirds of SCA cases on campus are in older non-students such as teachers, staff, spectators, and other visitors, and about one-third are in students.

The strongest predictor of survival after SCA is a short time interval from arrest to defibrillation (shock). However, even the best EMS systems can have delays, and the average time from an 9-1-1 call to arrival on scene at an SCA victim is six to eight minutes. In the U.S., the average survival rate for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is less the five percent. . Research has shown that having on-site AEDs available to treat a SCA increases the survival rate more than 10 times, to greater than 60 percent.

Another project the hospital is working on with Colfax High School a pilot project on the use of a Certified Athletic Trainer at sports practices, at various games or meets. The reason for the pilot project is to determine the benefits and outcomes of having an athletic trainer available to provide services such as evaluation of injuries, taping athletes and working with coaches on different types of conditioning to prevent injuries.

We have monitored the outcomes from the spring sports and felt that a full years worth of information would provide enough data to determine the success. The feedback from the coaches and athletes so far has been very positive. We are continuing this pilot project with the fall sports season at Colfax High School and will also include the LaCrosse football program.

Denise Fowler, Chief Clinical Officer

Whitman Hospital & Medical Center