Lancaster County utilizing app to increase public safety

Lancaster County utilizing app to increase public safety
Using technology in the best possible way, Lancaster County is now using an app to save lives in the county.

“We can see a pizza being delivered. You can see that on an app, and we’re slowly integrating that into healthcare,” said Darrell Fisher, president of the Lancaster County EMS Council.

An app called PulsePoint is now up and running, connecting people with CPR training to those suffering a cardiac emergency. Darrell Fisher is spear-heading the project.

“In October we took a test bed. We took emergency responders that were able to download the app to test whether the app works for Lancaster County,” Fisher said.

That translates into 2,000 test users providing coverage already.

But how does it work?

The app is integrated with the 911 dispatch centers, so when a 911 call comes in, anyone within a half-mile radius who has the app on their phone gets a notification.

“So if you have an off-duty nurse, police officer, firefighter, or EMT in your neighborhood, your next-door neighbor gets an alert on his phone that there is a cardiac arrest next to him,” Fisher said.

Lancaster General Health is funding the project for five years. Fisher says even if someone is not CPR certified, the app can still save a life—because the app tells users how to perform CPR, and where to find the closest AED, giving that person the best possible odds to pull through.

“You double the chance of survival if you start CPR prior to our ambulance arrival. So every minute CPR is not being done, you lose 10 percent chance of survival at the end of the day,” he added.