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Fact Sheets and At–a–Glance Reports
State Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Programs Address Prehospital
Emergency Medical Response
This document is also available in Portable Document Format (PDF–92K).
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Examples of Prehospital Emergency Medical Response Activities in
CDC–Funded State Heart Disease
and Stroke Prevention Programs
- All state programs are collaborating with the American Heart
Association and others to assess and improve stroke systems of care,
including emergency medical services, in order to reduce death and
disability.
- Over half of funded state programs are enhancing training for EMS
providers and dispatchers.
www.emspi.org*
- Several state programs are collaborating with their state EMS
offices on media campaigns to increase awareness of heart attack and
stroke signs and symptoms and the need to immediately call 911.
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Heart attacks and strokes are life–and–death emergencies in which every
second counts. Nearly half of all stroke and heart attack deaths occur before
patients are transported to hospitals.1–3 For this reason,
prehospital emergency medical service (EMS) system organizations and
providers are vital partners with public health to reduce death and
disability from heart attacks and strokes. Additionally, it is important for
the public to recognize the major warning signs and symptoms and the need to
immediately call 911.
State Heart Disease and Stroke Prevention Programs Take Action!
State programs collaborate with partners to enhance prehospital care for
heart attacks and strokes through the following strategies:
- Facilitate inclusion of the state EMS office when developing state
plans to reduce death and disability from heart attacks and strokes.
- Support emergency medical dispatcher training on stroke
signs/symptoms, prehospital acute stroke assessment, and priority
dispatching to hospitals that can comply with stroke treatment
guidelines.
- Promote protocols that ensure effective prehospital system
management of cardiac and stroke patients.
- Advocate state EMS licensing/certification requirements that ensure
appropriate initial training and renewal requirements based on the
latest treatment guidelines for heart disease and stroke.
- Collaborate with EMS to increase awareness of signs/symptoms.
- Assist the state EMS office and other key partners to communicate
the need for universal enhanced (wire–line) and wireless enhanced 911
coverage.
- Support existing efforts to place automated external defibrillators
(AEDs) and assist State Office of Rural Health to procure federal
resources for rural AEDs and training for appropriate AED use.
- Advocate for enhanced emergency care data collection and use of data
to identify appropriate systems improvements and training needs.
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National EMS–related Agencies/Organizations
- The key national EMS entities are National Highway Traffic Safety
Administration (NHTSA), Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA—Office
of Rural Health Policy and Trauma/EMS Systems), National Association of
State EMS Directors (NASEMSD), and CDC (National Center for Injury
Prevention and Control–NCIPC and National Institute for Occupational
Safety and Health–NIOSH).
- The National Association of EMS Physicians (NAEMSP) and American
Public Health Association, with support from NHTSA and HRSA, have
outlined opportunities for collaboration between EMS and public health
agencies (see EMS and Public Health Bulletin: A Strategy for Enhancing
Community Health Care, Oct. 2002). This roundtable series led APHA,
NAEMSP, and NASEMSD to establish a Memorandum of Understanding in
November 2001
- The key EMS organizations/agencies have developed Agendas for the
Future (i.e., overall, rural/ frontier, education, and research) with
the common elements of education/training, data,
communications/technology).
- The National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute's National Heart
Attack Alert Program Coordinating Committee is examining how to improve
use of 9–1–1. Georgia Division of Public Health. For More Information
For additional information on improving pre–hospital response for
cardiac and stroke emergencies, please see the following web sites.
References
- Ayala C, Croft JB, Keenan NL, et al. Increasing trends in
pre-transport stroke deaths—United States, 1990–1998. Ethn Dis
2003;13 (suppl 2):S131–137.
- Zheng ZJ, Croft JB, Giles WH, Mensah, GA. Sudden cardiac death
in the United States, 1989 to 1998. Circulation, 2001;104:2158–2163.
- CDC. State–specific mortality from sudden cardiac death–United
States, 1999. MMWR 2002;51:123–126.
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*Links to non–Federal organizations are provided solely as a service to our users. Links do not constitute an endorsement of any organization by CDC or the Federal Government, and none should be inferred. The CDC is not responsible for the content of the individual organization Web pages found at this link.
Date last reviewed:
05/12/2006
Content source: Division for Heart Disease and Stroke
Prevention,
National Center for Chronic Disease Prevention and
Health Promotion |
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