About the Washington, DC AED Registry™
Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurring outside the hospital setting is a leading cause of death in the United States with about 350,000 victims dying annually. The most common forms of SCA are treatable with defibrillation: shocking the heart with electrical energy delivered by an Automated External Defibrillator (AED). The most important variable impacting SCA survival rates is delivering the first shock within 4-5 minutes from the moment an individual experiences SCA.
AEDs are now commonly available in many private and public settings. Despite the rapidly growing number of available AEDs, and the need for AEDs to be retrieved and used rapidly, publicly available AEDs are rarely retrieved and used because bystanders can’t see them and 9-1-1 dispatchers are typically unaware they are nearby. Knowing AED location information enables 9-1-1 agencies to help someone like you use an AED to save a life. For this reason the Public Access to Automated External Defibrillator Act of 2000 requires that any person or entity who acquires an AED notify DC Fire and EMS of the existence of the AED, its location, type, re-location or removal by registering it. This site is designed to help register and keep track of AEDs for this purpose.
Because section 44-232 (c) of the Code of the District of Columbia requires notifying the call (dispatch) center, registering here on the District’s own registry will automatically inform the center.