Safety First

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After outfitting his 16 offices with automated external defibrillators (AEDs) about 3 years ago, Carmelo Tenuta, PT, calls the decision "the best investment he ever made."

Sudden cardiac arrest claims approximately 325,000 lives each year, according to estimates. A shock from an AED is the only way for a person who has a sudden cardiac arrest to survive. In order to be effective, a shock must be delivered within the first 5 minutes of an incident.

Several years ago, Tenuta, the CEO and founder of Sports Physical Therapy and Rehab Specialists (SPTRS), with offices in smaller Wisconsin and Illinois towns in the areas between Milwaukee and Chicago, decided it was time to make the investment and acquired more than a dozen portable AED machines. The machines were placed in 15 clinical offices, from Waterford, Wis., to Grayslake, Ill., and the company's corporate office.

SPTRS is a musculoskeletal orthopedic practice that rehabs patients after anterior cruciate ligament tears and hip replacement procedures. Clinicians also specialize in balance and dizziness, low back pain, women's health issues such as lymphedema and incontinence, and hand therapy.

"With our population getting older, I felt that [AEDs were] really a need. It was one of those gut calls that this was necessary in our offices," Tenuta says.

Less than a month later, he was right. But oddly enough, an AED wasn't used for a patient. A female therapist in her late 40s had a heart attack in the office. "She flatlined and our staff was able to revive her before the ambulance arrived, and she's still here today," says Tenuta.

"I see her all the time and she's walking, living proof that AEDs can make a difference," he added.

Although the machines haven't been needed since that day, all Tenuta's clinicians receive quarterly training and a risk manager makes sure the AEDs are working properly. And he's comforted by the fact that if another incident occurs, they'll be ready.

Article published in ADVANCE for Directors in Rehabilitation 7/23/2009 and written by Scott Huelskamp