For employers, there are several disadvantages of having employees that are suffering from certain heart disease. Just imagine this: when someone gets caught by heart attack, his co-workers are likely to stop whatever they are doing to attend the sufferer and do the necessary actions. In other words, not only the heart disease sufferer fails to do his job properly; the performance of people around him could also be affected in one way or another. Plus, there is a possibility that the company would be liable for financial expenses when a heart-disease-sufferer employee is at work when the emergency calls.
One solution for companies to avoid such problems is to choose only potential employees that are certified healthy, especially in terms of cardiorespiratory health. The problem with that is when the employee’s heart disease is developed while at work or because of the nature or job and the work environment. This comes to the need of regular health checkup and other preventive health maintenance steps for each employee in the company. It is also best to keep the work environment as health-friendly and safe as possible. Employers could strictly impose safety rules and other health-related standards as a means of preventing development of heart disease and any other unwanted medical conditions among the employees.
Furthermore, the American Heart Association or AHA has been promoting the need of having automated external defibrillators (AEDs) readily available for everyone within the workplace premises. This is one way to help any immediate responder do utmost action to save the life of a person who gets caught by sudden cardiac arrest, heart attack, or any other between-life-and-death heart conditions. Basically, an AED is used to deliver pulses of electric energy to the patient’s heart in order to revive its normal beat and so it could resume to its normal operation. This medical device was engineered to be able to automatically identify the necessary magnitude of electric pulses to be applied as well as the proper timing needed for maximum success rate of operation.
It is very important to mount the AED in an accessible and noticeable place. Proper labels must be provided, including the most important instructions and reminders for first-time users. At the same, you have to make sure that the AEDs are mounted securely that it would not be accidentally dropped or unintentionally powered on – this could lead to some accidents. It is also ideal to keep out of reach of children and animals to avoid mishandling of the device. In addition, AEDs must be monitored and maintained regularly to ensure that these would work properly anytime someone needs it. Employers could assign someone knowledgeable enough to handle the maintenance of the AED and train his co-workers on proper use of it and other important details.
If you want a deeper understanding of proper use and provision of AEDs in a company, it would be best for you to go for AED Program Management and AED Medical Oversight training courses. Citywide is one of today’s most well-established and recognized training centers for AED Program Management and AED Medical Oversight as well as other emergency medical services.
