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N.D. (NewsDakota.com) – A committee of area health officials, Emergency Medical Service personnel, and community members was formed to help bring cardiac ready designation to Jamestown.

The committee met recently to find the next steps to take regarding the designation. AHA Coordinator and Paramedic Jenny Iverson is heading the group. She says that the community will have designation by the end of the year.

The Cardiac Ready Communities project is a partnership of the North Dakota Department of Health’s Division of Emergency Medical Systems and the American Heart Association through the North Dakota Cardiac System of Care. The program is designed to promote survival from a cardiac event that occurs outside of the hospital setting. Iverson informed the committee that the community of Jamestown has already met many of the criteria to achieve the designation. She says Jamestown Ambulance will be the lead organization.

Some of the statistics regarding heart attacks and their responses in Jamestown were alarming. In 2016, out of the 45 heart attacks Jamestown Ambulance responded to, 66% of them were at a residents home. The other percentages were 15% at nursing homes and 17% in a public setting. 64% of those heart attacks were unwitnessed. Iverson says it’s important that those numbers are addressed by making Jamestown a cardiac ready community.

Iverson says it’ll be up to the committee to maintain the designation through awareness, support, implementation and programs.