Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center recognized for CPR training

Conemaugh Memorial Medical Center has been recognized for its commitment to competency in high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) training for employees. The Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) Program is a joint-venture of the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical, united with a shared life-saving goal and ensuring a standard of care in hospital resuscitation.

Six manikin carts have been installed around the ConemaughMemorial Medical Center main campus. The manikins are attached to computerswhere employees sign into their personal account prior to the demonstration.Once the employee performs CPR on the manikin, the system gives the employeefeedback on the pass rate and what can be done to improve.

The goal for staff is to master high-quality CPR with morefrequent practice and real-time feedback. RQI gives Conemaugh employees theopportunity to enhance their skills through frequent practice. This leads tomore confidence and better outcomes in a medical emergency situation. Employeesthat are required to be CPR certified for their job must complete the trainingeach quarter.

“Our compliance rate with the program after two quarters is99.75 percent, which is outstanding,” said Gayle Denk, Manager of Medical StaffSupport Services at Conemaugh Memorial. “We implemented Basic Life Support(BLS) on RQI in July 2018, and have seen staff improvement with our rate anddepth of compressions.”

Due to a misprint, the following statement has been corrected:
In the U.S., RQI Partners' goal is to implement RQI in 90 percent of all hospitals by 2025 – helping save 50,000 lives through increased survival rates from in-hospital cardiac arrest.