DHHS and OSHA asked to make AEDs a priority

September 28, 2001

The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has sent a “prompt letter” to the Department of Health and Human Services and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration that advocates the use of automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the workplace. Prompt letters are used to highlight issues of importance for regulating agencies in a manner that enables public scrutiny and debate.

The letter was sent by John Graham, administrator of the OMB’s Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA), who said that resuscitation success rates outside the hospital range between 17 and 38 percent when AEDs are available, compared with a 2 to 5 percent survival rate when AEDs are not available. He also noted that preliminary calculations by OIRA staff indicate that "AEDs in the workplace might prove to be cost-effective."

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