Rank: Forum user 
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I was interested to read that the London Ambulance Service has a current campaign to encourage shops, gyms and work places to purchase automated external defibrillators. I'm going to put together a needs assessment for the organisation I work for, but I wondered if anyone has experience of putting these into offices / work places and if so what exactly drove that decision?
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Rank: Super forum user
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Most public sector organisations now have them. I think the real reason that organisations have them is to give the impression that they are caring sharing people. Of course, if used correctly they can save someone’s life but in reality less than 10% of people who have a heart attack are actually saved by the use of a defibrillator. Advantages are: - Look good
- Can save lives
- Easy to use
Disadvantages: - Cost money to buy
- Need to be checked and occasionally serviced ( batteries etc)
- If left in public place can get stolen or otherwise abused- but there is no point hiding them away in a first aid room as that defeats the point of them being easily availible by anybody
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Rank: Super forum user 
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We have them on site and so far had never had to use one in anger. All our first aiders are trained in how to use it and as we have an aging workforce I'm sure we will have to use it at some point. There is one in a secure box on the wall of our local Co-Op, you ask the 999 operator for a key code to get it out if you need it. It's been there over a year and no signs of vandalism.
In my previous roles of H&S Auditor and Insurance Surveyor I came across several organisations that had them and had used them successfully to save lives. In one case (bingo halls) they had saved about 6 lives in total across 10 locations.
I agree with A Kurdziel's point that less than 10% of people who have a heart attack are saved by the use of a defebrillator but they do more than just administer electric shocks, they monitor heart and respiration rate which believe me can be very difficult for a first aider to do in what is always a very stressful situation and can therefore give the paramedics essential information which can be used to support if not necessarily save patients. For what they cost I would say - save one life and it has been worth it. Look at the British Heart Foundation website for more information https://www.bhf.org.uk/ and the page https://www.bhf.org.uk/about-us/our-impact where there is a link to a dedicated page on saving lives with CPR and defibrillators.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Further to my earlier post see also this page https://www.bhf.org.uk/h...-to-save-a-life/cpr-kits and this one
https://www.bhf.org.uk/heart-health/how-to-save-a-life/defibrillators
Loads of resources available to ensure that your employees know how to save someone's life and give them a better chance of a quicker and fuller recovery.
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Rank: Forum user
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Hi. We have a few AEDs around our campus. The decision was driven by the fact that we have large numbers of pupils and staff on site on a day to day basis, plus many external users who use our facilties for a wide range of activities, including sports.
Most pertinently, it's important to recognise that anyone can experience a cardiac arrest at any time, so to give the best possible chance of survivial we installed them. Thankfully we haven't had to use any of them and hope we never have to.
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Rank: Forum user 
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We have 2 on our site and they've not been used. In my previous role, I used one 4 times with a 50% success rate which is amazing, the survival rate for a SCA outside hospital is around 8-10% so we were chuffed. Without fast Defibrillation, all four of those casualties would have died. Having said that, if you decide to install them, its important for the users to understand that they are not miracle machines and mostly, the outcome is likely to be bad (without one though, its almost certain to be bad) Consider the after effects and put in a good de brief system for your first aiders. I totally agree with Hsquared, my first aiders all said that they felt a degree of support, even comfort that a machine had taken control and was telling them when and what to do in a very stressful situation. It helped them to effectively monitor the patient and provided the correct info to the paramedics when they arrived. I'd always say get one if you can, but plan ahead.
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 3 users thanked Pkirbyesquire for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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We have two on site, we've not had to use them but they are kept fully up to date and training for the first aiders is provided.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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They are most likely to be of benefit where there is a high concentration of people. If it takes too long to get the equipment to the person who needs it it won't be of much benefit at all. So I tend to positively recommend them only in places such as large offices. However, I don't discourage the provision in smaller workplaces - if they want to do the nice thing for their staff, visitors and passing members of the public then I have no wish to stand in their way!
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2 users thanked Kate for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user
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If you wait until the AED arrives, you will be shocking a corpse.
CPR is the first step.....and continuing step...even with the AED attached.
And with ambulance response times at 40 minutes +-, even for Cat1 calls...don't expect miracles
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Rank: Forum user
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Our HR bosses have developed an AED threshold for when defibs are supplied based on the numbers of people employed a site.
It sounds common sense to the bean counters, but in reality we may have 300 people in an office scenario with 2 x AEDs, whereas 10 staff (+ numerous contractors) in a separate huge data centre have to do without, despite significant electrical risks across a 4,500m2 data centre- as there's insufficent staff to justify one.
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Rank: Super forum user
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Originally Posted by: Messey  Our HR bosses have developed an AED threshold for when defibs are supplied based on the numbers of people employed a site.
It sounds common sense to the bean counters, but in reality we may have 300 people in an office scenario with 2 x AEDs, whereas 10 staff (+ numerous contractors) in a separate huge data centre have to do without, despite significant electrical risks across a 4,500m2 data centre- as there's insufficent staff to justify one.
What have AED to do with HR?
Surely AED’s and the use of them falls within the remit of First Aid and that falls squarely within H&S?
Just a thought on this cold Monday morning.
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1 user thanked A Kurdziel for this useful post.
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Rank: Super forum user 
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If only 1 life is saved then it will be worth it
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Rank: New forum user
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I have just installed a fully automatic defibrillator into our work place. I fully understand others comments that they are not miracle tools. However without one you have almost no chance so saving a life when it comes to cardiac arrest. We are a very busy event space so a no brainier as far as I'm concerned. There are many places you can purchase a device, British Heart Foundation have some good advice. Ours is pay for monthly this service and training included. You can purchase outright for about £1000, but there are quite a few on the market, also prices will start to fall as they become more readily a available. Training and use is very straight forward, although in a real situation I'm sure it's still very intense.
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