News

Eugene Springfield Fire (ESF) has always focused on improving life safety for our communities – often in the form of medical responses. Few situations are more dire than cardiac arrests, and the Community Safety Payroll Tax has directly impacted our ability to preserve and help responders do all they can for Eugene and Springfield. In 2022 alone, our witnessed cardiac arrest survival rates increased from 33.3% to 57.1%. And, in instances where bystanders started CPR or used an AED prior to responders arriving to take over, the survival rate increased 28% from the previous year to 63%!

In its pursuit to continually improve outcomes for patients, ESF has utilized the Community Safety Payroll Tax funding to create a full-time Quality Improvement Coordinator (QIC) role. The QIC reviews medical cases to assess the efficacy of ESF’s strategies and uses that information to create training and update our tools and practices. 

ESF is part of the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), which helps communities enhance survival rates by using data from first responders and local hospitals to track cardiac arrest outcomes. Our QIC uses the CARES registry to track outcomes for patients who received CPR/AED interventions from our crews and from the public prior to arrival at the hospital. The QIC uses this data and collaborates with Training Section staff to create new learning experiences for first responders that expands their skills in these critical situations and incorporates the newest and most impactful medical practices.

In addition to improvements and trainings implemented by the QIC, ESF began using grant-funded LUCAS devices, which help crews deliver continuous CPR without interruption. ESF is proud of our QIC and the incredible impact their work has had on survival rates of cardiac arrest patients. 

2022 Witnessed Cardiac Arrest Survival Rates (Text alternative to chart)