Pulse Point

The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) protects the privacy of individually identifiable health information. On a ‘CPR Needed’ notification, the app reports only an address (in a public place) and a business name, if available. Individually identifiable health information, such as name, birth date, or Social Security Number are not reported or known to the PulsePoint application.

The PulsePoint app is a Location-Based Service (LBS) with the ability to make use of the geographical position of your mobile device. The LBS capabilities of the app allow you to see your current location relative to the incidents occurring around you. This is an optional feature that is not enabled by default – you must specially opt-in to utilize this functionality. In addition, if you opt-in to the CPR/AED notification, the PulsePoint server will store your current location for immediate reference during an emergency where you may be nearby. In this case, only the current location of your device is stored (no movement history is maintained) and your identity is never known to the PulsePoint application.

CPR today is very easy to perform and can be learned quickly in informal settings such as community street fairs, group training sessions, take-home DVD-based courses, or even by watching brief online videos. These types of training environments do not provide certificates of other forms of skill documentation. Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) actually require no training to use. Therefore, there is no ability or even reason to verify that someone volunteering to help others with CPR or an AED has been formally trained. Also with our 911 systems ability as Emergency Medical Dispatchers (EMD) they can provide guidance to callers on how to perform hands only CPR.

Only about one quarter of Sudden Cardiac Arrest victims receive bystander CPR, and public access Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) are used less than 3% of the time when needed and available. The current situation is far too few bystander rescuers – not too many. The goal of the app is to engage additional bystanders in these lifesaving acts. If this was to truly materialize in the future it would be a major success and the footprint of the notification could be reduced.

It’s easy to set up – it just takes a user name and password.

Once you establish an account, you can review all of the City’s job descriptions and select any that you are interested in. If a position comes open and you’ve indicated an interest in it, we’ll send you an e-mail to let you know.

It’s a great way to keep informed of employment opportunities with the City!

Set up account

For the app to be activated someone must first call the local emergency number (such as 911) to begin a normal public safety response. This means that the victim is likely not alone when the CPR/AED notifications are made. In addition, the app is only activated for incidents occurring in public places (not at someone’s home for example) furthering the likelihood that others will be present. Also, since the app is only activated on devices in the immediate vicinity of the victim, a “Bad Samaritan” has little opportunity to be in the right place at the right time

The app aims to notify those essentially within walking distance of the event location. However, this distance is configurable on an agency by agency basis. Higher population densities usually warrant a smaller notification radius. Likewise, a rural area with longer local government response times may choose to notify over a broader area. We will currently have it set to the recommended ¼ mile radius and adjust as needed.

First of all, we are looking for candidates who meet or exceed the minimum qualifications of the job description so be sure to review that when applying for the job.

We’re also looking for strong customer service skills for all positions because that’s what we’re here to do – provide excellent service!

The purpose of the Good Samaritan Law is to protect individuals that assist a victim during a medical emergency. Most Good Samaritan laws are created specifically for the general public. The law assumes that there is no medically trained person available to assist the victim. Since the Good Samaritan typically does not have medical training, the law protects him or her from being liable from injury or death caused to the victim during a medical emergency. A general layperson is protected under the Good Samaritan laws as long as he or she has good intentions to aid the victim to the best of his or her ability during a medical emergency. Since each state law has specific guidelines, and this text does not provide a worldwide view of this matter, you should familiarize yourself with the laws or acts applicable to you. A typical example of the wording appears below.

“…a person, who, in good faith, lends emergency care or assistance without compensation at the place of an emergency or accident, and who was acting as a reasonable and prudent person would have acted under the circumstances present at the scene at the time the services were rendered, shall not be liable for any civil damages for acts or omissions performed in good faith.”

Yes. With dispatchers making rapid over-the-telephone assessments of patients based on the observations of untrained callers, an incorrect determination can be made. For example, such a situation could occur with someone who has just had a grand mal seizure, passed out from too much alcohol, or has a very high blood sugar. However, if you tried to do CPR on such an individual he or she would probably moan and possibly even try to push you away. Also, an AED would not deliver a shock to a person in any condition where an effective heartbeat was present

SFFR has a radio scanning and feeding dispatch and our tactical channels. We provide an official feed into Radio Reference. PulsePoint pulls the audio from there.

Yes, the app notifies nearby citizen rescuers regardless if an AED is available, as getting CPR started as soon as possible is the primary goal and if an AED is within range that information is shared to further benefit the intervention.

The CPR alert only works in jurisdictions where the app is deployed. Currently that would be 10 agencies and they are listed on the app for individuals to choose. You can adjust the alerts you sign up for at any time.