LYCOMING COUNTY, Pa. — Residents of Lycoming County can help save someone's life right at their fingertips. The Lycoming County Department of Public Safety, UPMC, and Susquehanna Regional EMS have brought the PulsePoint app to the area. It launched in the county a few weeks ago.
"It's an app that you can download on your phone, if you wish to participate, and it'll alert you to instances where there's sudden cardiac arrest in the general public. That way we can enable our bystanders and the people within our communities to be able to respond more quickly to these and have better patient outcomes in the end," said Tony Bixby with Susquehanna Regional EMS.
You don't have to be CPR-certified to get the PulsePoint app, but participants are encouraged to learn basic lifesaving skills through the Red Cross.
Those who have PulsePoint will be alerted through the 911 comm center if someone nearby is going into sudden cardiac arrest.
The app also shows nearby automated external defibrillator devices (AED) as well. An AED is used to help those experiencing sudden cardiac arrest.
"if they're at a local business or a local store, and there's an emergency right there in that area, they're able to more quickly respond until our teams can get dispatched and get on scene, and provide the advance level care," Bixby said.
Bixby says the app can be crucial since minutes matter when someone is going into sudden cardiac arrest. It can sometimes take a while before an ambulance arrives.
"There's a big stress out in our communities to perform hands-only CPR, which is a huge part of our Minutes Matter program through UPMC, just knowing you can get on the chest and perform those high-quality chest compressions."
This app could also be important for people in rural areas, where it might take some time for an ambulance to arrive.
"Having the bystanders to be able to start this high-quality CPR before we get there is truly going to be lifesaving," Bixby added.
According to the PulsePoint website, there have been 260,000 activations nationwide, with more than one million people responding to those emergencies in an average of two and a half minutes per response.
Anyone with an iPhone or Android can download the PulsePoint app at the website.