Through the generosity of The Helmsley Charitable Trust grant, the Department of Health will equip every law enforcement agency with a Stryker CR2 Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). The Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Program in the Office of Rural Health is responsible for administering this grant over the next three years. The grant officially started on September 1, 2019. This $3.6 million grant will supply approximately 1200 devices to the SD Highway Patrol, Game, Fish and Parks, municipal police departments, tribal law enforcement, county sheriffs, and campus police.
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The EMS Program provided 18 regional training sessions between October and December of 2019. During these training sessions over 100 law enforcement officials were trained and over 700 AED devices were distributed.
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Year one of the grant focused on training and distribution, evaluation metrics, device management and usage, and remedial training.
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Year two of the grant focuses on evaluation metrics, monitoring usage, and performance improvement feedback to local law enforcement
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Year three of the grant will focus on evaluation metrics, monitoring usage, and performance improvement.
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Helmsley’s Rural Healthcare Program funds innovative projects that use information technologies to connect rural populations to specialty medical care, bring the latest medical therapies to patients in remote areas, provide state-of-the-art training for rural hospitals and EMS personnel, and foster incentives for healthcare personnel to train and serve in rural areas.
"We at the Helmsley Charitable Trust are proud of the hard work of everyone involved when a medical emergency strikes. To all the dispatchers, officers, EMTs, and providers out there, we thank you for your efforts. Together, we can ensure our neighbors, friends, and loved ones have a better chance of survival when the unthinkable happens."