Communities that achieve “Heart Safe” status must meet specific criteria as defined by the Citizen CPR Foundation to receive official designation as a “HEARTSafe Community.”

The Citizen CPR Foundation is a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving cardiac arrest survival by mobilizing communities, professionals, and citizens to take action during cardiac arrest incidents. The Foundation’s HEARTSafe Community initiative promotes survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) through the evaluation, planning, and development of cardiac awareness, widespread CPR/AED instruction, and establishing multiple AED locations throughout the community. 

Of the 350,000 people who experience an OHCA in the United States every year, only 10% survive to hospital discharge. This rate has remained unchanged for more than 30 years. However, a person experiencing an OHCA is two to three times more likely to survive if a bystander applies an AED before EMS arrival. If defibrillation occurs within three to five minutes of collapse, the survival rates can be as high as 50-70%. AED use before EMS arrival accounts for only 2% of all OHCA events and 8% of OHCA events in a public setting. Early defibrillation can be achieved using public access and on-site AEDs.

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