When Canadian brick manufacturer Brampton Brick decided to
invest in automated external defibrillators (AEDs), it did so with the health
and safety of its aging workforce in mind.
“Our employee turnover rate is next to zero,” says Nick Bartzis, health and safety coordinator for Brampton Brick. “People that come to (work at) Brampton Brick usually retire at Brampton Brick.”
An AED is a small, portable device that assesses the heart of a person in cardiac arrest for a “shockable” rhythm. If such a rhythm is detected, a button is pressed to deliver a shock or series of shocks to the victim’s heart, stopping it to allow it to return to a normal rhythm, according to a definition by Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Brampton Brick recently purchased six AEDs and deployed them across all its office locations in Ontario and in Wixom, Michigan. In addition, the company maintains a “standby” unit, which serves as a mobile AED brought to various offsite functions such as Christmas parties and family picnics, Bartzis says.
The company has since built AED training into its regular CPR and first aid training classes for employees, Bartzis says. “Our health and safety training is coming up and I believe we have 30 people at our Brampton campus that going to be learning how to use the defibrillator and updating their CPR.”
Its aging workforce, however, is not the only reason for the company’s decision to invest in AED units, Bartzis says. “It’s all about protecting our employees. That is important to us as an organization because of our moral obligation to our employees and our unwritten obligation to their families to do whatever we can in the workplace to ensure the safety of the workers.”
That’s why the company spent a significant amount of time researching and evaluating various AED products before settling on one, Cardiac Science’s Powerheart AED. Bartzis says reliability and ease-of-use were the most important criteria when deciding on a product.
The Powerheart unit performs a self-test on a daily basis to ensure that the machine is functioning and will function properly in the event of a cardiac emergency, says Bartzis.
“Reliability of the unit is important to me. I don’t want to be in a position where we spend the money on AEDs for it to come off the wall when it’s needed and then not work,” he explains.
It was also important that the language and instructions on the AED unit are clear for whoever is using it, he notes.
Powerheart also features bipolar pads that allow first aid attendants to place the pads “on the patient’s bare chest” without having to worry about whether they are placing them on the right spot, Bartzis says.
“With some of the manufacturers, one of the pads has to be placed up near the right collar bone. The other pad must be placed on the injured worker’s left side,” he explains. “With the Cardiac Science unit, it doesn’t matter which pad goes in which location. I don’t have to look at a pad and say, ‘this one goes here and that one goes there.’”
The use of AEDs, when combined with CPR, may increase the survival rate of a person suffering from sudden cardiac arrest by 75 per cent, according to data from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
An average of 40,000 cardiac arrests happen in Canada each year and 80 per cent of that take place outside the hospital setting, according to the foundation, which has begun a campaign and fundraising to install AEDs across public places in Ontario.
“We received $3 million from the provincial government to help roll out a program of placing 1,000 defibrillators across Ontario public places, focusing on recreation centres and arenas,” says Nadia Yee, senior manager for government relations at the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
While defibrillators were previously only used by medical and paramedical personnel, the introduction of more easy to use and the declining cost of AEDs are making them viable for use outside the medical setting, says Yee.
Although the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Start a Heart and Save a Life campaign is initially focused on putting defibrillators in public places, Yee says having AEDs in workplaces is as important.
“We would love to see these defibrillators being placed and being as common as fire extinguishers,” she says. “We find that they are just as important, if not more so, in saving lives.”
But while companies, such as Brampton Brick, have taken the initiative to invest in AEDs, there is no legislative requirement to have defibrillators in workplaces.
“It would be nice to see a requirement for it at some point, maybe in the Building Code stage, but I don’t think we’re there yet,” says Yee. “But I think maybe a long way down the road that might be where we’re at.”
The awareness among organizations around the importance of AEDs, however, has been rising, says Ed Kennedy, North American director of distribution for Cardiac Science.
And it’s not only the aging workforce that are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest - even healthy teenagers have succumbed to it, says Kennedy.
“That’s why in the U.S. many laws have been passed requiring AEDs in schools to protect our young children. States like Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and about a dozen others have passed legislation because sudden cardiac arrest affects all ages,” he says.
“Our employee turnover rate is next to zero,” says Nick Bartzis, health and safety coordinator for Brampton Brick. “People that come to (work at) Brampton Brick usually retire at Brampton Brick.”
An AED is a small, portable device that assesses the heart of a person in cardiac arrest for a “shockable” rhythm. If such a rhythm is detected, a button is pressed to deliver a shock or series of shocks to the victim’s heart, stopping it to allow it to return to a normal rhythm, according to a definition by Canada’s Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Brampton Brick recently purchased six AEDs and deployed them across all its office locations in Ontario and in Wixom, Michigan. In addition, the company maintains a “standby” unit, which serves as a mobile AED brought to various offsite functions such as Christmas parties and family picnics, Bartzis says.
The company has since built AED training into its regular CPR and first aid training classes for employees, Bartzis says. “Our health and safety training is coming up and I believe we have 30 people at our Brampton campus that going to be learning how to use the defibrillator and updating their CPR.”
Its aging workforce, however, is not the only reason for the company’s decision to invest in AED units, Bartzis says. “It’s all about protecting our employees. That is important to us as an organization because of our moral obligation to our employees and our unwritten obligation to their families to do whatever we can in the workplace to ensure the safety of the workers.”
That’s why the company spent a significant amount of time researching and evaluating various AED products before settling on one, Cardiac Science’s Powerheart AED. Bartzis says reliability and ease-of-use were the most important criteria when deciding on a product.
The Powerheart unit performs a self-test on a daily basis to ensure that the machine is functioning and will function properly in the event of a cardiac emergency, says Bartzis.
“Reliability of the unit is important to me. I don’t want to be in a position where we spend the money on AEDs for it to come off the wall when it’s needed and then not work,” he explains.
It was also important that the language and instructions on the AED unit are clear for whoever is using it, he notes.
Powerheart also features bipolar pads that allow first aid attendants to place the pads “on the patient’s bare chest” without having to worry about whether they are placing them on the right spot, Bartzis says.
“With some of the manufacturers, one of the pads has to be placed up near the right collar bone. The other pad must be placed on the injured worker’s left side,” he explains. “With the Cardiac Science unit, it doesn’t matter which pad goes in which location. I don’t have to look at a pad and say, ‘this one goes here and that one goes there.’”
The use of AEDs, when combined with CPR, may increase the survival rate of a person suffering from sudden cardiac arrest by 75 per cent, according to data from the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
An average of 40,000 cardiac arrests happen in Canada each year and 80 per cent of that take place outside the hospital setting, according to the foundation, which has begun a campaign and fundraising to install AEDs across public places in Ontario.
“We received $3 million from the provincial government to help roll out a program of placing 1,000 defibrillators across Ontario public places, focusing on recreation centres and arenas,” says Nadia Yee, senior manager for government relations at the Heart and Stroke Foundation.
While defibrillators were previously only used by medical and paramedical personnel, the introduction of more easy to use and the declining cost of AEDs are making them viable for use outside the medical setting, says Yee.
Although the Heart and Stroke Foundation’s Start a Heart and Save a Life campaign is initially focused on putting defibrillators in public places, Yee says having AEDs in workplaces is as important.
“We would love to see these defibrillators being placed and being as common as fire extinguishers,” she says. “We find that they are just as important, if not more so, in saving lives.”
But while companies, such as Brampton Brick, have taken the initiative to invest in AEDs, there is no legislative requirement to have defibrillators in workplaces.
“It would be nice to see a requirement for it at some point, maybe in the Building Code stage, but I don’t think we’re there yet,” says Yee. “But I think maybe a long way down the road that might be where we’re at.”
The awareness among organizations around the importance of AEDs, however, has been rising, says Ed Kennedy, North American director of distribution for Cardiac Science.
And it’s not only the aging workforce that are at risk of sudden cardiac arrest - even healthy teenagers have succumbed to it, says Kennedy.
“That’s why in the U.S. many laws have been passed requiring AEDs in schools to protect our young children. States like Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey and about a dozen others have passed legislation because sudden cardiac arrest affects all ages,” he says.
