Automated External Defibrillator - Placement and Availability

Placement and Availability

Automated external defibrillators are generally either held by trained personnel who will attend events or are public access units which can be found in places including corporate and government offices, shopping centres, airports, airplanes, restaurants, casinos, hotels, sports stadiums, schools and universities, community centers, fitness centers, health clubs, theme parks, workplaces and any other location where people may congregate.

Maimonides Medical Center in Borough Park, Brooklyn was the first hospital in the United States to implement fully automated external defibrillators at the bedside.

The location of a public access AED should take in to account where large groups of people gather, regardless of age or activity. Children as well as adults may fall victim to sudden cardiac arrest (SCA)

In many areas, emergency vehicles are likely to carry AEDs, with some ambulances carrying an AED in addition to manual defibrillators. Police or fire vehicles often carry an AED for first responder use. Some areas have dedicated community first responders, who are volunteers tasked with keeping an AED and taking it to any victims in their area. AEDs are also increasingly common on commercial airliners, cruise ships, and other transportation facilities.

High-rise buildings are densely populated, but are more difficult to access by emergency crews facing heavy traffic and security barriers. It has been suggested that AEDs carried on elevators could save critical minutes for cardiac arrest victims, and reduce their deployment cost.

In order to make them highly visible, public access AEDs are often brightly colored, and are mounted in protective cases near the entrance of a building. When these protective cases are opened or the defibrillator is removed, some will sound a buzzer to alert nearby staff to their removal, though this does not necessarily summon emergency services; trained AED operators should know to phone for an ambulance when sending for or using an AED. In September 2008, the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation issued a 'universal AED sign' to be adopted throughout the world to indicate the presence of an AED, and this is shown on the right.

A trend that is developing is the purchase of AEDs to be used in the home, particularly by those with known existing heart conditions. The number of devices in the community has grown as prices have fallen to affordable levels. There has been some concern among medical professionals that these home users do not necessarily have appropriate training, and many advocate the more widespread use of community responders, who can be appropriately trained and managed.

Typically, an AED kit will contain a face shield for providing a barrier between patient and first aider during rescue breathing; a pair of nitrile rubber gloves; a pair of trauma shears for cutting through a patient's clothing to expose the chest; a small towel for wiping away any moisture on the chest, and a razor for shaving those with very hairy chests.