The American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical launch enhanced resuscitation quality improvement portfolio for healthcare

DALLAS, Jan. 15, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- RQI Partners, LLC, a joint venture partnership between the American Heart Association (Association) and Laerdal Medical (Laerdal) focused on delivering innovative resuscitation solutions to dramatically improve patient outcomes across healthcare systems, announced today the launch of RQI 2020, a comprehensive, end-to-end resuscitation quality improvement program that will deliver higher CPR quality at a lower cost to healthcare systems and professionals. The enhanced program marks a significant advancement in the Association and Laerdal's goal to implement a new standard of resuscitation quality and patient care in U.S. hospitals.

Last July, the Association, the leading voluntary health organization devoted to a world of longer, healthier lives, and Laerdal called for a new standard of care by shifting resuscitation practice from course training once every two years to verified CPR competency for healthcare professionals. The RQI 2020 program provides a high-reliability platform for self-directed, simulation-based mastery learning and performance, which is implemented through "low-dose, high-frequency" hands-on CPR quality improvement sessions, in 10 minutes every 90 days, that measure and verify competency each time.

Co-developed by the Association and Laerdal in 2015, the Resuscitation Quality Improvement® (RQI®) program was designed for healthcare professionals with responsibility for patient care. Now, the RQI 2020 program prepares all healthcare system staff members to deliver high-quality CPR and verify competency in Basic Life Support, Advanced Life Support and Pediatric Advanced Life Support through simulated skills sessions and eLearning simulations.

To provide a complete solution to hospitals, a brand new offering – RQI Responder – is now available for use by non-clinical healthcare staff who are not directly involved in patient care. The addition of RQI Responder will ensure that every hospital employee, clinical and non-clinical, is prepared to respond to a cardiac arrest event and able to provide high-quality CPR.

"We believe we have the best, highest quality and most effective solutions that are grounded in the American Heart Association's unparalleled legacy of resuscitation research, science and education with a continuous lens on advancing quality," said Clive Patrickson, RQI Partners' CEO. "These solutions help healthcare organizations save more lives while using time and money more efficiently. With the introduction of RQI 2020, RQI Partners now offers the most comprehensive product portfolio for hospital resuscitation quality improvement, affording healthcare systems the ability to follow and document learners' performance and competency organization-wide, ultimately delivering high-quality CPR on every patient, every time."

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. 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.

"My staff competes to determine who gets the best proficiency and to see who can score higher. That is the intangible gold I can't buy, institute or create through some other means," said Michael Kurz, M.D., associate professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. "With change, you want to see a return on investment, which, in this case, might be measured by lives saved after resuscitation events, increased staff confidence, dollars saved or a change in culture. Any way you measure it, RQI clearly represents a fundamental change in the way we practice resuscitation and that is a definite improvement over the paradigm that we're using now."

The RQI 2020 program employs learning management technology to track, monitor and record individual learner performance that operates in a learning management system (LMS)-agnostic environment. This allows all customers seamless access regardless of their LMS platform. RQI Partners recently announced agreements with several LMS providers to enable their customers integrated access to RQI 2020, Responder and HeartCode® eLearning programs.

"RQI Partners is pleased to continue delivering novel resuscitation science and technology solutions from the American Heart Association and Laerdal Medical – two brands that are trusted and used by the vast majority of hospital-based healthcare providers to learn and provide resuscitation care each year," said Patrickson. "Today's announcement exemplifies the three organizations' commitment as strategic partners to lead innovative change in healthcare. We are excited to introduce RQI 2020 and work with LMS providers to ensure healthcare professionals possess the essential skills to improve cardiac arrest patient outcomes, creating a culture of resuscitation excellence."

The RQI program addresses the competence-based requirements for accreditation as established by The Joint Commission, which are focused on competence, interactive verification of knowledge and skills and promoting a culture of safety.

For more information about RQI 2020's program features and benefits 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.

SOURCE RQI Partners, LLC