First Aid Agency / Equipment

Defibrillator placement and upkeep

A device that fails its self-test silently is not a control.

Automated defibrillators perform self-tests and indicate status, and they depend on somebody looking at the indicator. A device with a depleted battery or expired pads displays a fault that nobody sees for months.

The check is seconds and needs to be scheduled and recorded like any other. Pads and batteries have expiry dates and both are consumables rather than fixtures.

Placement should be driven by retrieval time from the furthest occupied point, which frequently means more than one device on a large or multi-level site. Central placement in a lobby is convenient and can be the wrong answer.

Access has to survive the building being locked. A device inside a secured area is unavailable during exactly the hours when a lone worker is most exposed.

Registering the device with the local ambulance service, where such a scheme exists, is worth doing, since it can be directed to by an operator during a call from a nearby location.

There is a further defibrillator consideration for sites with shift work: whoever is on at three in the morning should know where it is, and induction for night shift is frequently thinner than for day staff because it is delivered by whoever is available.