Weber and Morgan Counties offering PulsePoint CPR notification system

Dec 13, 2022, 6:30 PM | Updated: 6:32 pm

Letty Hingtgen, a Red Cross first aid instructor, demonstrates CPR. Photo by Susan Thomas

Associate Producer

OGDEN, Utah — There’s a new way for certain first responders to help in emergencies when they occur in Weber and Morgan Counties. It’s called Pulse Point, and it’s a free app for Apple and Android devices.

The PulsePoint app is integrated with Weber and Morgan County’s 911 dispatch systems. It allows users to identify themselves as someone who is trained in CPR. Then, in the case of an emergency, the app uses location services to direct those first responders to the person in trouble.

It can also direct those first responders to the nearest defibrillator.

The counties took interest in the app after meeting with other county emergency services at a Resuscitation Academy in Washington.

“We looked at how their survival rates were so high, and what went into that,” Ogden City Deputy Fire Chief Mike Slater told KSL NewsRadio. “And we found out they’re a PulsePoint community. They use this app.”

The app has two different sets of permissions, one for citizens trained in CPR and one for off-duty medical personnel and firefighters. Average citizens will only have access to information about emergencies in public areas.

Medical professionals will have access to information in both public and private areas.

“What we’ve learned through emergency medicine is that for every minute that somebody is not doing CPR, the patient’s survival rate drops by 10%

People trained in CPR who choose to act in an emergency will be protected by the Good Samaritan Act. That means they will not have to worry about potential liability.

The PulsePoint app has reportedly connected over 4,300 communities, with more than 800,00 monthly users.

Simone Seikaly contributed.