The award-winning Hillsborough County Fire Rescue Department is known for their service...but it is their visionary thinking and progressive techniques that are getting them noticed internationally.

They are one of only five fire departments in the world asked to participate in the Circulation Improving Resuscitation Care study. Also known as CIRC, this trial is studying manual cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) performed with a rescuer’s hands versus CPR provided by the AutoPulse®, an FDA-approved electronic device.  The trial is being conducted by the AutoPulse® manufacturer, ZOLL Medical Corporation, and also includes Houston, Texas; the communities of Appleton, Neenah-Menasha and Grand Chute, Wisconsin; Vienna, Austria; and Nijmegen, Netherlands.

As part of this study, patients suffering from sudden cardiac arrest who receive care from Hillsborough County Fire Rescue will be randomly provided either manual or electronic chest compressions.  The trial will only be conducted on adults and in non-trauma cases.  Fire Rescue will follow up with patients in the hospital afterwards to get permission to take data from their case to use in the study.

The AutoPulse® is a band that slips around the patient’s chest that squeezes a wide area of the chest in the same rhythmic manner as manual CPR.  It has the same benefit as manual CPR of improving blood flow to the heart and brain during cardiac arrest, but also allows emergency medical workers to focus more attention on additional patient care.

It also may improve patient care, because it allows for easier chest compressions in awkward situations such as when transporting patients up staircases or inside a moving ambulance.

As part of the trial, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue has received 72 of the AutoPulse® devices and training in their use.  The Fire Rescue Trial Coordinator also regularly contacts medic teams after they use the device to discuss how the call went and suggests improvements in response.

There are an estimated 325,000 Americans who die every year because of sudden cardiac arrest. The next two to three years of this trial will determine if the AutoPulse® can improve on the survival rate.

While the CIRC study is a trial, Hillsborough County Fire Rescue has already implemented another procedure.  With a nod to NASCAR, the Fire Rescue has started using the “pit crew” approach to emergencies.

As in a race pit crew, each person on a team is assigned specific duties to carry out. The three-person EMS crew follows a pre-defined, standardized process for assessing the scene and starting treatment.  Now, crews arrive on the scene and start providing manual or electronic chest compressions, as well as many of the other life saving measures in as little as 45 seconds, a process that previously could have taken a few minutes. This consistency extends to every Fire Rescue crew in the County, and has already improved results with just this new technique of managing the scene.