UMD is bringing more automated external defibrillators to campus

The University Senate approved recommendations by the Campus Affairs Committee on the management of university-owned automated external defibrillators on Tuesday, Nov. 10th.

The University Senate voted Tuesday to fill holes in how the university manages its automated external defibrillators and to bring more of the life-saving devices to the campus.

In its meeting, the senate voted to approve recommendations by the Campus Affairs Committee for on-campus AEDs with “overwhelming support.”

AEDs are portable devices that monitor heart rhythm and can restore normal rhythm with an electric shock in the event of sudden cardiac arrest. While the university owns and operates 29 on-campus AEDs and 14 off the campus, there is no university policy guiding their management, said Matthew Hicks, deputy fire marshal with this university’s Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability & Risk.

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“The university has had AEDs for many years, but it has not had a centralized program and defined processes in place related to AEDs,” said Erin Rooney-Eckel, chairwoman of the Campus Affairs Committee.

The vote ensures the devices will be managed by a single office, that more information about them will be made publicly available and that more AEDs will be placed on the campus.

The issue was raised by a university student, who brought to the senate’s attention that not all the school’s AEDs were registered with the state.

This meant that not all devices necessarily followed state regulations on maintenance and replacement of parts.

“He suggested that the committee consider centralizing the university’s AED program in one office so that the program can be more effectively managed,” Rooney-Eckel said.

As a result, the committee’s recommendations will ensure that the Department of Environmental Safety, Sustainability & Risk alone manages the devices’ oversight, Rooney-Eckel said.

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“This would allow one office to coordinate all aspects of the program,” said Willie Brown, chair of the senate. “Campus AEDs will be more consistently managed and overseen as a result.”

Previously, the University Health Center managed the AEDs, in accordance with state law that required they be overseen by a health-care professional, but the department took the reins from it in February following 2013 revisions to those regulations, Rooney-Eckel said. 

“With taking that over, it was our goal to revamp the AED program and start making it a true program and expanding it,” Hicks said. “With the meetings with Campus Affairs, they saw our progress was the right direction.”

The department is working on finalizing a draft of its program, Hicks said, as well as publishing information online that will outline each AED on the campus, every trained personnel and answers to frequently asked questions. He said he did not know when these projects would be completed.

The recommendations will also facilitate further development of the program so that eventually every building on the campus will boast an AED.

“The committee has recommended expansion of the AED program through a priority-based approach where new AEDs will be added first to all public assembly and high-hazard buildings, and over time, all appropriate campus buildings will get an AED,” Brown said. 

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Senators consulted with representatives of the Division of Administration & Finance, the department, the university’s Fire Marshal’s Office, the health center and others to come to their conclusions.

In their research they found that several peer institutions have much more robust AED programs than this university’s, Brown said.

“Some institutions provide inventories and maps of AED locations online, and some have established a program that assigns AEDs by priority, focusing on criteria like building size and capacity, expected age of building visitors and risk for heart attacks taking place on-site,” Brown said.

There are about 326,200 EMS-assessed cardiac arrests outside of hospitals in the United States each year, according to the American Heart Association. Use of an AED can help to more than double a victim’s chance of survival, according to the association.

“At a university, an AED tends not to benefit students, but visitors on-campus or professors who are more likely to have cardiac disease and resultant arrhythmias,” David McBride, the health center director and program’s medical director, wrote in an email. “Given how many people come on to our campus, having AED’s available is a great idea.”