Mayor Mike Duggan joins Commissioner Chuck Simms, the Detroit Fire Department, and community partners to celebrate Detroit’s HEARTSafe Community designation. Image courtesy of City of Detroit
After more than a decade of tireless effort, Detroit has achieved a major milestone in public safety. Mayor Mike Duggan and Executive Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms proudly announced today that Detroit is now the largest municipality to earn the prestigious HEARTSafe Community designation, a recognition of the city’s commitment to lifesaving cardiac care and emergency response.
Detroit has achieved official recognition as part of the HEARTSafe Community initiative; a national preparedness program focused on enhancing outcomes for sudden cardiac arrest. This initiative, led by the Citizen CPR Foundation, aims to improve the response to cardiac emergencies and increase community preparedness.
The Detroit Fire Department has been actively pursuing the HEARTSafe Community designation in recognition of its unwavering dedication to enhancing the cardiac health of Detroit residents. Its primary goal is to bolster survival rates for individuals experiencing cardiac arrest across the city.
Mayor Mike Duggan emphasized that his team has been working behind the scenes for nearly twenty years, gathering data on cardiac arrest, building relationships, and improving outcomes.
“Thanks to the Citizen CPR Foundation for highlighting this critical effort and giving us actionable goals to continue to work towards.”
To achieve the designation of HEARTSafe, a community must fulfill 13 specific criteria. These criteria include the annual training of 15 percent of the community’s population, the development and implementation of strategies to increase public awareness and promote bystander intervention in emergency situations, the permanent and easily accessible placement of automated external defibrillators (AEDs), and the acknowledgment of individuals who have made lifesaving efforts. These are just a few critical requirements a community must meet to become HEARTSafe. For a comprehensive list of all the criteria necessary to achieve the designation of a HEARTSafe Community, please refer to this link.
Dr. Robert Dunne, the Medical Director of the Detroit Fire Department, is currently leading the effort to achieve and maintain the HEARTSafe Community designation. He is working closely with Captain Jeffrey Forbes. The initiative has garnered significant support from Commissioner Simms and Mayor Duggan, showcasing a cohesive and collaborative approach to achieving this designation at different levels of leadership within the community.
Executive Fire Commissioner Chuck Simms expressed his pride in the dedication of the men and women of the Detroit Fire Department, who have worked hard to become the largest municipality to be designated a HEARTSafe Community.
“Our residents deserve the best we can provide in terms of education and prevention, but we can’t do it alone. We need the support of the whole community as we work to improve cardiac arrest care for the citizens of Detroit.”
Ever since the City of Detroit became a part of the PulsePoint app in 2023, following the proactive initiative taken by the Detroit Fire Department, there are currently over 500 automated external defibrillators (AEDs) registered across the city. This has greatly improved access for residents who have the app installed, enabling them to swiftly locate the nearest AED in the event of a cardiac arrest.
The Detroit Fire Department also leads the critical work of CPR training in the City of Detroit in collaboration with community partners. Through these partnerships, more than 100,000 people have been trained in CPR in the past year in the city. This work is being done at city recreation centers, community events, and through training programs offered across the city.
Several community partners collaborate on this critical work, including Detroit East Medical Control Authority, the American Heart Association, the American Red Cross, area hospital systems, Ford Field, General Motors, and Grainger.
The recent announcement is just a step as the City of Detroit works towards even more improved cardiac arrest outcomes. The teams charged with this essential work will continue making progress toward several goals, including:
- Train 15% of the city’s population in CPR every year
- Work to train all City of Detroit employees in at least Hands-Only CPR
- To have all 8th-grade students in the City of Detroit trained in Hands-Only CPR
- Encourage organizations and community groups in the City of Detroit to develop cardiac arrest emergency response plans
- Purchase additional AEDs and install them in key public places
- Continue to promote AED registration through the PulsePoint app
- Educate the community on the risk of sudden cardiac arrest, prevention, and how to respond in an emergency
- The City of Detroit must continue to make progress in these areas to continue being recognized as a HEARTSafe Community.
Stuart Berger, MD, Citizen CPR Foundation Board President and Executive Director of the Heart Center at Lurie Children’s Hospital, expressed his pride in the Citizen CPR Foundation’s designation of Detroit as a HEARTSafe Community.
“Leading up to this designation, Detroit has done impressive work in improving their system of care for sudden cardiac arrest. The impact of these well-delivered community-based strategies will be measured directly in the number of lives saved in their city.”
Detroiters can sign up for CPR training here: https://calendly.com/dfdacademy.
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