Office of Emergency Management EMS Division Recognized Nationally for Cardiac Arrest Response and Care Efforts
Received awards for work to increase bystander intervention and consistent data reporting over the last six years
Milwaukee County Office of Emergency Management’s (OEM) Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Division was recently recognized nationally by the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) for its effort in cardiac arrest response and care. The OEM-EMS division received the Excellence Award for its practices and programs to increase bystander intervention and improve survival statistics, only seven agencies in all of Wisconsin received the Excellence Award. OEM-EMS also received the Hallmark Award for its work to review, verify, and submit annual cardiac arrest response data to CARES over the past six years.
“I’m proud of the work the Office of Emergency Management is doing each day to help keep neighborhoods in all parts of the county healthy and safe. Cardiac arrest response and care is a space where we see deep health disparities along racial lines due to Black and Brown communities historically facing barriers to timely EMS care. At every level OEM is stepping up to meet the needs of our residents and bridge gaps in health disparities.,” said County Executive David Crowley.
In 2004, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) collaborated with Emory University School of Medicine’s Department of Emergency Medicine to develop CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival), an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) surveillance registry to help communities increase survival rates. The program includes 30 state-based registries and the District of Columbia, with community sites in 16 additional states. CARES ultimately represents a catchment area of more than 175 million people, with more than 2,300 EMS agencies and over 2,500 hospitals participating nationwide.
“Addressing the disparities in cardiac care and response requires a multi-faceted approach. The Office of Emergency Management’s local programs and partnerships help raise awareness about the signs of cardiac arrest, the importance of early activation of EMS, and how bystander CPR can help save a life,” said EMS Medical Director Dr. Ben Weston.
CARES data are used to help communities benchmark and improve their performance for OHCA care. CARES allows participating EMS agencies to view their own statistics online confidentially and compare their performance to anonymous aggregated data at the local, regional, or national level.
“Continuous quality improvement is a cornerstone of the work we do in the Office of Emergency Management. The benefit of the CARES program is it helps strengthen local collaborations between 911 centers, first responders, emergency medical services, and hospitals. Strong collaboration is key to ensure residents receive care quickly, especially in the event of a cardiac arrest where quick recognition and action can save lives,” said OEM Director Cassandra Libal. “Moving forward, we aim to improve our ability to respond to emergencies promptly, provide high-quality care, and continually evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of our community.”
NOTE: This press release was submitted to Urban Milwaukee and was not written by an Urban Milwaukee writer. It has not been verified for its accuracy or completeness.
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