During a cardiac emergency, every second…every minute that passes without CPR or AED use can mean the difference between life and death. It can take the ambulance 30 minutes to respond in South Dakota’s more remote areas.
The Cardiac Ready Community (CRC) Program helps educate, equip, and empower local community members to be better prepared and more confident in helping someone experiencing a cardiac event before the ambulance arrives. Start the conversation in your community and help assemble a CRC Team!
The CRC Team works together to create a system of care where community members, city officials, business owners, dispatchers, emergency medical services (EMS), police, fire, and hospital staff work together.
Is your community prepared to respond to a cardiac emergency?
Cardiac Ready Community The Cardiac Ready Communities (CRC) Program focuses on educating, equipping, and empowering local community members to be better prepared and more confident in helping a patient experiencing a cardiac event before the ambulance arrives. The CRC Program runs through a partnership of the SD Department of Health (DOH) and the Cardiovascular Collaborative, a voluntary group of SD medical and public health professionals working to improve the quality of life through the prevention and control of heart disease and stroke. Since 2017, the South Dakota Cardiovascular Collaborative has been working to improve the quality of life for all by preventing and managing cardiovascular disease and its associated risk factors. In 2018, the Cardiovascular Collaborative initiated the CRC Program. The CRC Program focuses on advancing health equity, optimizing health through chronic disease prevention, improving response to acute cardiovascular incidents, and supporting disease management. The CRC Program promotes the American Heart Association (AHA) Chain of Survival, which can improve the chances of survival and recovery for victims of cardiac events.
Please visit Cardiac Ready Communities | South Dakota Department of Health (sd.gov) for more information and to hear about other communities that have achieved this designation.