RQI Partners, LLC enters into an agreement with careLearning to market, sell and provide customer access to resuscitation product portfolio

DALLAS, Jan. 8, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- RQI Partners, LLC, a joint venture partnership between the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical focused on delivering innovative resuscitation solutions to dramatically enhance patient outcomes across healthcare systems, is taking another major step in its goal to implement a new standard of resuscitation quality and patient care in U.S. hospitals. The company announced today it has entered into an agreement with careLearning, an online education company designed to help healthcare organizations by providing reliable, trusted and easily-accessible talent management solutions, to market and sell the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical's co-developed Resuscitation Quality Improvement® program and range of HeartCode® Basic Life Support, Advanced Cardiovascular Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support eLearning programs. Additionally, careLearning will provide RQI Partners' customers access to these programs on careLearning's learning management system (LMS). The agreement is effective immediately.

Last July, the American Heart Association, the leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives, and Laerdal Medical called for a new standard of care by shifting resuscitation practice away from course training once every two years to verified CPR competency for healthcare professionals provided through the Resuscitation Quality Improvement (RQI®) program. RQI is a self-directed, simulation-based performance, mastery learning and quality improvement program for healthcare professionals that offers "low-dose, high-frequency" hands-on learning sessions that provide vital CPR skills practice in 10 minutes every 90 days. Data is archived in a learning management system, which is used to track and document individual learner performance and competency.

"We're pleased to work with careLearning, a company committed to helping healthcare facilities educate and develop employees to assist in better patient outcomes, to market, sell and provide our customers access to our product portfolio on its LMS platform," said Clive Patrickson, RQI Partners' CEO. "This move illustrates RQI Partners' commitment to an LMS-agnostic environment, as well as extending distribution channels for our product suite. We want to ensure healthcare professionals possess the essential skills to perform high-quality CPR on every patient, every time and are excited to partner with careLearning to further the reach of our resuscitation products."

Each year, more than 200,000 adult cardiac arrests occur in U.S. hospitals and less than 26 percent of adult patients survive. High-quality CPR is the primary component that influences survival from cardiac arrest. In January 2019, RQI Partners will debut RQI 2020, a comprehensive, continuous quality improvement program that will deliver higher CPR quality at a lower cost to healthcare systems and professionals.

"careLearning was formed by the state hospital associations to provide a learning management system that is both effective and affordable to healthcare organizations. Offering American Heart Association courses, now including those through RQI Partners, is a fundamental part of meeting that goal. For many of our clients, especially in rural settings, bringing in trainers or sending employees out is costlier and more difficult to coordinate. We are proud to assist these organizations with conveniently receiving and tracking this education so that we can be a part of bettering outcomes in their communities," said Laura Register, careLearning executive director.

Currently, there are more than 400 U.S. hospitals that have implemented the RQI program and more than 300,000 healthcare providers have improved CPR competency since the program's introduction.

For more information about RQI and RQI Partners, visit www.rqipartners.com.

About RQI Partners, LLC
RQI Partners, LLC is a joint venture partnership between the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical, positioning the organizations to deliver innovative solutions that accelerate the impact of their lifesaving mission. The company blends the Association's leadership in science with Laerdal's expertise in technology and implementation to deliver impactful and innovative resuscitation quality improvement programs. For more information, visit www.rqipartners.com and follow us on Twitter and LinkedIn.

About the American Heart Association
The American Heart Association is a leading force for a world of longer, healthier lives. With nearly a century of lifesaving work, the Dallas-based association is dedicated to ensuring equitable health for all. We are a trustworthy source empowering people to improve their heart health, brain health and well-being. We collaborate with numerous organizations and millions of volunteers to fund innovative research, advocate for stronger public health policies and share lifesaving resources and information. Connect with us on heart.org, Facebook, Twitter or by calling 1-800-AHA-USA1.

About Laerdal Medical 
Laerdal Medical, one of the world's leading providers of healthcare solutions, is dedicated to helping save lives with products and services for Simulation, Airway Management, Immobilization, Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support, Patient Care, Self-Directed Learning and Medical Education. Laerdal is pleased to serve all healthcare providers and educators, from the lay rescuer to medical professionals. Laerdal operates sales and support offices in 23 countries worldwide, and with the head office located in Stavanger, Norway. For more information, visit www.laerdal.com or call 877-523-7325.

About careLearning
careLearning is an online education company designed to help healthcare organizations by providing reliable, trusted and easily-accessible talent management solutions. Our competency, eLearning and performance products are developed to ensure that employees are provided with the appropriate training and education based on an assessment of the skills, knowledge and abilities required and an evaluation of their job performance. For more information, visit www.carelearning.com or call 866-617-3904.

SOURCE RQI Partners, LLC