Wow, happy news for once! Congrats to anyone involved in executing this sensible idea.

(I always wondered how this program worked out - here's a great story illustrating its effectiveness...)



When a man collapsed in a restaurant, help was nearby thanks to app-based program
Updated 3:50 PM; Posted 3:50 PM

By Patrick Villanova | The Jersey Journal
When a man collapsed on the floor of a Chinese takeout restaurant in Jersey City and went into cardiac arrest earlier this month, help was surprisingly close by.

Lipa Berkowitz, a United Rescue volunteer who was driving along Ocean Avenue at the time, got word of the emergency and sprang into action.

Berkowitz, 30, quickly parked and responded to the restaurant where he found the 61-year-old man unconscious on the floor. As the initial first responder at the scene, Berkowitz used his automated external defibrillator (AED) to try to restart the man?s heart.

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The information provided is pretty clear cut, and there is also a graphic for those who learn better visually. This does not save or spend money. It does not impact the professional emergency responders' time. It simply creates another layer of trained volunteers to address emergencies even quicker, until the ambulance comes. If you read any of the supplementary articles on these programs, they have been met with great success.

This plan sounds great in many ways, but I have a few questions. I'm not 100% clear on how things are meant to work now (yeah - my bad), and how thing had previously been proposed to work in the future (before this plan came along).

I would appreciate elucidation from those with the pertinent facts.

Right now, if a call with medical emergency is placed to 911, is it planned that JCFD will arrive first, and ambulance from JCMC will arrive next & follow up?

According to this proposed plan, would we be relying on local volunteers (rather than JCFD) to to fill the first responder role until ambulances with professional EMTs can arrive on the scene?

What is the incentive to attract high-quality volunteers to fulfill this important duty?

Don't get me wrong, the distributed, community-mindedness of this plan sounds great. But the skeptic in me suspects $$ is at play - and while that could be a good thing for the budget there are other considerations that must be addressed.

JERSEY CITY ? Mayor Steve Fulop, a rare sight at City Council caucuses, sat in on the opening portion of last night?s gathering for what he called a ?significant? and ?exciting? announcement.

Fulop, along with officials from Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health and United Hatzalah ? an Israeli community-based emergency care program ? unveiled plans to launch a new community response system for ambulatory calls. The program, known as Community Based Emergency Care (CBEC), is modeled after the United Hatzalah program, which began in Israel in 2006.

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My understanding, based on some fuzzy recollection, is that many (most? all?) states have now passed "Good Samaritan" laws to protect private citizens that attempt to provide help during an emergency. These laws are the result of some high profile lawsuits that stemmed from unfortunate results after some people had tried to assist a victim.

Wiki on Good Samaritan Laws

Not sure if a private citizen, with goodwill in mind can (will?) be sued for a good samaritan act - anyone know the legalese on this?

we're really in a sad world if someone is dying in our proximity and the first thing on our mind is a lawsuit

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A good visual of the concept - larger here: http://www.unitedrescue.us

Great idea but since we live in a lawsuit crazy world ... who gets sued if something goes wrong?

The JCMC, JC, or the volunteer?

(City of Jersey City Press Release)

Jersey City to Launch Community Focused 911 Responder Service To Expand Existing EMS; First in the USA Modeled after Israel

Jersey City will be Fastest Response Time in Country; Goal of sub 2 minute response

JERSEY CITY ? Today, Mayor Steven M. Fulop, United Hatzalah and the Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health are partnering to launch the first of its kind in the country of a mobile app based community response system for ambulatory calls. The program, known as Community Based Emergency Care (CBEC), is modeled after the highly successful Israeli community-based emergency care program United Hatzalah, which is described here: https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_beer_the ... _a_motorcycle?language=en.

Initially, Jersey City will target 100 volunteers to launch the program. The volunteers will complete a course on basic emergency response provided by Barnabas; the volunteers will be outfitted with emergency response equipment, and will have a mobile app linked into the city?s EMS 911 system.

?The idea is simple and it leverages technology. As an example, if a 911 call comes into a high-rise building for a heart attack victim on the 10th floor, why should we not try to bridge the response time to provide help if we know there is a doctor or someone who can help on the 5th floor? Rather than waiting for the ambulance to arrive and the doctor hearing the sirens, we will notify certified personnel, provide them with a real-time GPS locator so they can bridge the response time until an ambulance arrives. This system will be the first to leverage the community working with technology,? said Mayor Fulop.

Jersey City?s CBEC program will be funded completely through philanthropic donations raised by a group of United Hatzalah contributors and others (organized under United Rescue to deploy the model around the United States and the rest of the world). It will come at no cost to the taxpayer or the Jersey City Medical Center.

?We have seen how effective this program is in Israel and we are excited to be the first city in the United States to launch such an innovative, life-saving program,? said Mayor Fulop. ?When every second matters, we want to deliver the fastest, best medical service to our residents so we can save more lives. Using this technology and effective system, we can reach more people in critical life or death situations.?

The difference between life and death for someone suffering from a heart attack, stroke, choking, drowning or other accident is often determined by how quickly help arrives. Now (anywhere outside of Israel), a child could be choking in her apartment -- while someone who could save her life might be, unaware, relaxing in his home a block away.

An office worker could be suffering from a heart attack -- while someone who could save his life might be, unaware, in a meeting a floor below. This lack of information exchange, Mayor Fulop, the leadership of Jersey City Medical Center and United Rescue believe, should no longer be the difference between life and death. The goal of the CBEC program is to ensure that there is always a cadre of trained and equipped volunteers, who can be instantly located and dispatched from the 911 operator and on any scene in the city immediately.

?We are constantly working to enhance public safety, whether that means hiring more police officers and firefighters or redeploying personnel to the areas they are needed, and this is the next step in that process,? said Mayor Fulop. ?We are adding another layer to our public safety network to ensure residents are provided the highest level of service and at no cost to the taxpayers.?

In an emergency, residents will simply continue to call 911, where dispatchers will immediately deploy both an ambulance and a CBEC. The United Rescue technology uses a GPS-enabled mobile app to track and deploy the nearest volunteer responders who are able to quickly navigate through dense urban areas on ambucycles or on foot -- whichever is fastest.

CBEC volunteers begin treatment in order to stabilize a patient?s condition until the JCMC EMS arrive on the scene, with an objective of reaching patients within 150 seconds from the time of the emergency call to treatment. The national standard for ambulance response times is eight minutes and 59 seconds; the Jersey City Medical Center ambulance response time is approximately six minutes.

?Jersey City Medical Center looks forward to working closely with the City of Jersey City to ensure that residents have the quickest possible response time in medical emergencies,? said said Joseph F. Scott, FACHE ? President and CEO, Jersey City Medical Center?Barnabas Health. ?We are always exploring new methods and technologies to guarantee we are on the cutting edge of technology.?

All of the United Rescue volunteers will either live or work in Jersey City, increasing the benefits of being part of the Jersey City community. The City and the JCMC anticipate training volunteer medics by mid-February with the ability to deploy by July 1. The long-term objective of the program is to have a cadre of 250+ trained volunteers throughout Jersey City, enabling victims of trauma anywhere to be treated within moments.

?Because of the leadership of Mayor Fulop and the Jersey City Medical Center EMS, Jersey City is poised to become the first city in the United States to deploy a system of community-based emergency caregivers that will enable residents and visitors who suffer from trauma to be treated on the right side of the moments that separate life from death, ? said Mark Gerson, Chairman of United Hatzalah.

As in Israel, the program aims to include volunteers from all sectors of Jersey City?s diverse community. Anyone who is interested in becoming a Jersey City Community Based Emergency Caregiver can register at the program?s website at http://www.unitedrescue.us.

Volunteers will undergo a 60-hour training course, receive CBEC app and medical equipment, and will be a vital part of the local emergency responder community, helping saving the lives of neighbors in times of need.

The United Hatzalah program was established in 2006 in Israel and currently fields more than 2,500 trained volunteers who respond to more than 200,000 emergency calls annually.