Tahoe Forest Hospital Recognized by the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical for its Dedication to Maintaining High-Quality CPR

chest compression on manikin

Tahoe Forest Hospital was recognized by the American Heart Association (AHA) and Laerdal Medical for its commitment to ensure competency in high-quality CPR, a lifesaving intervention and the foundation of survival from cardiac arrest, through the implementation and broad adoption of the Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI) Program.

The RQI Program is an innovative, evidence-based approach to training students, producing high-quality CPR skills that can lead to improved patient outcomes.

Tahoe Forest Hospital was among the first wave to adopt the RQI Program, implementing it on October 1st2016. “The program was a perfect fit for our health system, as a way to maintain and improve our CPR skills,” says Damara Stone, RN, BSN, BA, Education Coordinator and program adoption lead. Since the implementation of the RQI program, the Hospital’s compression skills (the foundation of high quality, life-saving CPR) have increased 9%, and its 2-person CPR skills have increased 5%. “This is a dramatic increase over a relatively short period of time compared to the traditional ‘every two-year classroom training’ model.”

The AHA RQI Program has been developed through a collaboration between the AHA and Laerdal Medical. The AHA provides the expertise in evidence-based research and best-practice guidance, and Laerdal Medical provides proven simulation/learning technology. Together, the two entities provide the exclusive RQI Program solution that delivers and manages the more frequent training and retraining.

The American Heart Association projects that the RQI program will be implemented by 90% of hospitals by 2025.

October 4, 2018