The Overland Park Fire Department runs nearly 70 calls per day in Overland Park. Four out of five of those are medical calls.
To ensure our emergency medical technicians and paramedics are providing the highest possible service to the community, the department tracks sudden cardiac arrest save rates, among other metrics.
Overland Park uses a scoring system known as the Utstein survival score, which considers not just patient viability and cardiovascular circulation, but also successful hospital discharge. This ensures better long-term outcomes for patients.
Nationally, your chance of surviving a sudden cardiac arrest incident outside of a hospital is about 33%. In Overland Park, you have a 60% chance of survival, nearly double the national average.
The OPFD invests in all aspects of the “chain of survival” to reach this outcome. This includes training the community in bystander CPR and AED usage, working with emergency dispatchers to coach callers through CPR and AED usage, adopting the latest EMS procedures and protocols and training intensively for these events.
You can be ready to help a friend, relative or colleague in an emergency by learning hands-only CPR.
Visit opkansas.org/Fire to learn more about this critical service in the Fire Department’s annual report and contact the fire department to learn bystander CPR.