This week Friendship Ambulance was notified the organization was a recipient of the 2018 CARES Award for actively participating in the Pennsylvania Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES). Friendship Ambulance is one of 122 EMS agencies in the Commonwealth recognized during “CARES Recognition Week” in Pennsylvania. On October 10, 2018, the Pennsylvania House of Representatives adopted a resolution designating October 15 through 19, 2018 as CARES Recognition Week to commend the agencies for their efforts to improve the quality of care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) in their communities.

Each year, more than 350,000 people in the United States experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). The Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) is a national cardiac arrest registry developed to help save lives by providing a tool for communities to measure the effectiveness of their emergency response systems and identify opportunities to improve quality of care.

One of 24 statewide registries across the U.S., Pennsylvania CARES helps EMS agencies in the Commonwealth participate in the national CARES registry. Friendship Ambulance successfully participated in CARES for the 2017 calendar year and is commended for collecting data, in collaboration with and on behalf of BLS, first responder, and community partners, to measure outcomes, improve the quality of care, and save lives. Participation in CARES allows for measurement of both bystander and 911 response, including information about bystander CPR and AED application, telephone CPR, and EMS response times. Using this information, Friendship Ambulance can discover promising practices and implement new programs to improve emergency care for patients in the community.

The agency’s dedication to collecting OHCA data has helped strengthen the collaboration between 911 centers, first responders, EMS agencies and hospitals, with the ultimate goal to improve OHCA survival rates.

For more information on CARES and the benefits of cardiac arrest data collection, please visit the Pennsylvania CARES program site (https://smemsc.org/index.php/programareas/138-2/ ) and the national CARES website (https://mycares.net).