Misplacing an AED

[HotelSecurity]

A few years ago I posted that my Director did not want the hotel to have an AED because he was worried that it might not be found when needed & the hotel would be sued. Then there is this story in the media today in Quebec: http://www.cjad.com/CJADLocalNews/en...tryID=10332082

[craig333]

Did he ever consider that maybe someday he might be the one that needs a defibrillator?

[HotelSecurity]

Did he ever consider that maybe someday he might be the one that needs a defibrillator?

1) He does not work at the hotel.

2) He is worried about the hotel being sued if a case like the one in the news story were to happen.

I think we should have them but I'm surprised how few cardiac arrests there have been in my 35 years in hotels. At least within the past 2 years the Montreal Fire Department has begun to offer First Responder service. Responders with AEDs are arriving much faster these days. Again personally I think we should have them, even if they only save 1 person.

[craig333]

Keep it in an area thats near an employee. All the ones I've seen are alarmed. We have a fire station close by. Excellent response times. If they're not busy. Can't always count on first responders being there quickly unfortunately.

I think it would be a selling point for a hotel. Our employers are trained in first aid,cpr aed. These days you're going to get sued either way.

[Eric]

At first glance, depending how long your medical response times are, you may not need one. Of course, with a pool and food on site, a few thousand may be worth it. Does the chain have a policy on AED's for locally owned sites? I am just fishing for information you can use to sell your case.

An alarmed (local only and or a pager) box behind the front desk should provide enough safeguards which is better than protection for fire extinguishers all over the place.

[HotelSecurity]

At first glance, depending how long your medical response times are, you may not need one. Of course, with a pool and food on site, a few thousand may be worth it. Does the chain have a policy on AED's for locally owned sites? I am just fishing for information you can use to sell your case.

An alarmed (local only and or a pager) box behind the front desk should provide enough safeguards which is better than protection for fire extinguishers all over the place.

This is something that bugs me about this hotel chain. Security policies are almost all "suggestions" to the francisee. As far as I know the chain has no policy.

My bosses woory is the AED would be behind the front desk, security would be sent to a room for a medical emergency on an upper floor. If the Officer was nearby he would logically go directly to the room rather than waiting for the elevator, going down to the lobby & going back upstairs. The AED would stay downstairs. If the guest is in arrest the Officer might be too occupied to call someone (if there was someone on duty) to bring it up. If members of the victim's family found out there was an AED at the front desk but it was not brought upstairs, we could be sued.

For the poster who worried that the fire station could be on another call, Montreal has 66 fire stations.

[JoeMama]

Montreal has 66 fire stations.

And unless they are in the lobby when the call comes in, you should be there well before them.



I guess from your post that the entire hotel only has one AED? They like to cheapen out on everything huh?

[HotelSecurity]

And unless they are in the lobby when the call comes in, you should be there well before them.



I guess from your post that the entire hotel only has one AED? They like to cheapen out on everything huh?

1) The fire department arrives within 3 minutes. CPR can be done until they arrived.

2) The fire department operates 24 hours a day unlike us.

3) I never said we had an AED. We don't.

[5423]

... 3) I never said we had an AED. We don't.

Interesting. There's one hanging in the reception area, ten feet from my office door. There are two people working here in the building today.

Guess my employers/bosses saw this issue in a different light...

Personally, I really don't understand your employers' hesitation in this, current AEDs being so much more user-friendly and less expensive than they once were (I was involved in some of the initial agency field-testing, in another life in CA, and saw first-hand the actual results of fielding an AED on our save/loss ratio).

But I tend to look at mitigation of potential risk from the "If this action saves just ONE life..." perspective.

I sincerely hope your boss isn't someday profoundly sorry for his choice.

[HotelSecurity]

Interesting. There's one hanging in the reception area, ten feet from my office door. There are two people working here in the building today.

Guess my employers/bosses saw this issue in a different light...

Personally, I really don't understand your employers' hesitation in this, current AEDs being so much more user-friendly and less expensive than they once were (I was involved in some of the initial agency field-testing, in another life in CA, and saw first-hand the actual results of fielding an AED on our save/loss ratio).

But I tend to look at mitigation of potential risk from the "If this action saves just ONE life..." perspective.

I sincerely hope your boss isn't someday profoundly sorry for his choice.

My boss has no worries about the effectiveness or ease of use. He's worried about a situation where the is one but in the panic of the event someone forgets we have one, it doesn't get used & people find out we had one.

He also believes that the general public should not see all your cameras, some should be hidden.