When people are getting a good workout, their blood starts pumping faster and their heart rate goes up. For a healthy individual, this cardiovascular change is good for the body. However, for people who have heart problems, high blood pressure, or other medical conditions, the extra work by the cardiovascular system can cause life-threatening problems. Because of this, it is important that every gym owner or fitness center owner has a portable defibrillator on hand and people who have been trained to use one. Investing in a portable defibrillator is a major thing, so you must know what features to look for in a unit.
Go for a fully automatic portable defibrillator.
There are basically three choices of portable defibrillators: manual, semi-automatic, and automatic. It is always best if you can go for a fully automatic unit, even though these units can be a bit more expensive. The automatic version will detect when a patient needs to receive a cardiovascular shock on its own, which can be incredibly beneficial in a life-threatening situation. Semi-automatic defibrillators will prompt the user to induce a shock, but the user has to be the one who performs the function. The portable Heartsine AED is a good example of a fully automatic defibrillator.
Opt for a single-use cartridge design.
All portable defibrillators have batteries to power them and cartridges that have an expiration date listed on the outside. You will have to keep tabs on the expiration dates of the cartridges and replace them as necessary. Likewise, once a cartridge has been used, it will have to be discarded. Therefore, it is best if you get a unit that functions with a single-use cartridge that is easy to remove and replace after the unit has been used. The best all-in-one models have these single-use cartridges.
Pick a unit that has a self-testing function.
In order to make sure the unit is always prepared during an emergency, it should be tested regularly, but it is easy to forget to test these units if they are rarely ever used by your staff members at the gym. Some higher-end portable defibrillators actually have a self-testing feature, which means the unit will test itself for functionality periodically and alert you with a beep or sound signal if there is something wrong. Some units that have an integrated digital screen will simply show you there has been a failed test when you pull it out of its container.
