Sudden cardiac arrest happens when the heart stops pumping effectively, and it is not the same as a heart attack, which is a blocked artery that usually leaves the person conscious. Arrest can strike anyone at work, including staff, visitors, and customers, and survival depends on what the first few minutes look like. This guide walks you through workplace cardiac emergency preparedness as a complete system: people, equipment, a written plan, and practice. By the end, you will have a tested cardiac emergency response plan, AEDs placed, staff trained, and drills scheduled. Before you start, make sure you have the authority to make safety decisions (or a sponsor who does), a floor plan of your facility, and a rough headcount by shift.

Step 1: Assess Your Workplace Risk and Response Gaps

Start with geography. Map every site, floor, shift, and remote or off-hours work area, including loading docks, warehouses, parking structures, and spaces where people work alone. For each location, walk from the main entrance to the farthest point and time it. That number tells you how long a responder, or an ambulance crew, would actually need to reach a person who has collapsed.

Next, take stock of who is trained today. Pull certification records and check expiration dates, because many staff hold cards that have lapsed or never held one at all. Note which shifts have no trained person on site, since gaps usually cluster on nights, weekends, and during vacations.

Then find out how fast help really arrives. Call your local dispatch authority or EMS agency and ask for typical response times to your address, rather than assuming. A site on the edge of a service area, or one with a gated entrance or a multi-story layout, may add several minutes before paramedics reach the patient.

Finally, identify who and what raises your risk profile:

Older employees, or a workforce with known cardiac risk factors
Visitors, customers, clients, or students who come and go in numbers
Physically demanding or high-heat work
Isolated workers who would not be found quickly
Exposure to electrical hazards, which can trigger arrhythmias

Write the findings in a short gap list: areas too far from help, shifts without trained staff, and groups needing special attention. This list drives every later step.

Step 2: Check Legal Requirements and Assign Responsibility

Rules on AEDs vary by state and locality and change over time, so confirm them rather than relying on general advice. Look into requirements or incentives for AED placement, medical direction or physician oversight, registration with EMS, and the scope of Good Samaritan protection. As of 2026, these details differ widely, and Good Samaritan laws are not identical everywhere. Confirm current wording with your state health department, your local EMS agency, or legal counsel.

At the federal level, OSHA has no single standard requiring AEDs in all workplaces. Its first aid provisions and the general duty clause may still apply, depending on your industry and distance from emergency care. OSHA's wording and interpretations can be updated, so read the current text on osha.gov or ask your insurer or counsel how it applies to you before you finalize policy.

Once you know the rules, assign people. Name a program coordinator who owns the whole effort, plus a backup, and designate a coverage lead for every shift and location. Put their duties in writing so nothing depends on memory or goodwill. A workable duty list includes:

Maintaining the AED inventory and monthly check log
Tracking training rosters and renewal dates
Keeping the response plan current and posted
Scheduling and running drills
Managing post-event reporting and supply replacement

Get the coordinator's role approved by leadership, and give them a budget line. A program with a name on it survives staff turnover; a program that "everyone" owns tends to lapse.

Step 3: Select, Place, and Register Your AEDs

An automated external defibrillator (AED) is a portable device that analyzes heart rhythm and delivers a shock only when it detects a rhythm that needs one. It will not shock a person who does not need it, a common worry that keeps bystanders from using one. But owning an AED is not preparedness. Placement and readiness decide whether it helps.

Use a retrieval target as your guide. The American Heart Association has long referenced getting an AED to a patient within about three minutes of collapse, which in practice means a round trip of roughly three minutes or less from any point. Confirm the current wording in AHA guidance, then test it against the walking times you gathered in Step 1. Large or multi-floor sites will need several units.

Placement

Put units where people can see and reach them, not in locked offices or behind reception desks that close at five. Good locations include near elevators, cafeterias, main corridors, entrances, and gyms. Use cabinets that are unlocked, or alarmed but openable, and mark them with clear signs visible from a distance. Make sure every shift can reach them, including after hours.

Model and registration

If customers, students, or the public visit, choose a model that supports both adult and pediatric use, whether through pediatric pads or a pediatric mode. Check whether your state requires you to register the device with EMS or a medical director, and complete that step before installation.

At purchase, record the pad and battery expiration dates for each unit, along with its serial number and location. You will need these for the maintenance routine in Step 6.

Step 4: Train Your Responders in CPR, AED Use, and BLS

Match training to the role instead of buying one course for everyone:

General staff: CPR and AED courses
Clinical staff: Basic Life Support (BLS) certification, the professional-level course covering team-based resuscitation and advanced airway basics
Designated responders: First Aid in addition to CPR and AED

Every course should cover the chain of survival actions that matter most at work: recognize that someone is unresponsive and not breathing normally, call 911, start high-quality compressions right away, and use the AED the moment it arrives. Early compressions keep blood moving to the brain and heart until a shock can be delivered, and the AED's voice prompts guide the rest.

Insist on hands-on skills practice with manikins and AED trainers. Video-only or purely online learning may build knowledge, but it does not build the muscle memory for compression depth, rate, and recoil, or the comfort of attaching pads under pressure. Blended formats with an in-person skills session are a reasonable option when schedules are tight.

Plan for renewal. Standard American Heart Association and American Red Cross certifications are generally valid for two years, but verify your chosen provider's current policy and put each expiration date on a tracking sheet with reminders set well ahead.

Finally, build coverage. Count trained people per shift and per location, then train enough that vacations, sick days, and turnover still leave responders on every floor. A good rule of thumb is to train more people than you think you need, and to add training to new-hire onboarding so the roster refreshes itself.

Step 5: Write the Cardiac Emergency Response Plan

The core of your plan should fit on one page, because nobody reads a binder during a collapse. Lay out the action sequence with names or roles attached:

Who calls 911 and gives the location
Who starts CPR immediately
Who retrieves the AED and brings it to the patient
Who meets EMS at the entrance and guides them in

Include the details that save minutes on arrival: the exact street address, the best entrance for ambulance crews, elevator access or key-fob requirements, gate codes, badge instructions, and parking or loading-zone directions. For multi-building or campus sites, list the address and entrance for each building, since a vague location is one of the most common causes of delay. Make sure whoever calls 911 can state the floor and room.

Add a post-event section too. It should cover:

Incident documentation while memories are fresh
Replacing used AED pads and checking the battery, then confirming the unit is back in service
Handing over any device data to EMS or your medical director as required
A staff debriefing within days
Support for the people affected, including coworkers who witnessed the event, through your employee assistance program or similar resources

Post the one-page plan next to every AED and near phones, and add it to new-hire onboarding. Review it with leadership and, where your state requires, with your medical director. A plan that sits in a shared drive is not a plan responders can use.

Step 6: Maintain Equipment and Practice with Drills

The most dangerous assumption in this field is that an AED works because someone bought it years ago. Batteries and pads expire, cabinets get blocked by boxes, and units get moved. Build checks into the calendar.

Set a monthly inspection for each AED covering four things: the status indicator shows ready, the pads are sealed and in date, the battery is in date, and the cabinet and signage are intact and unobstructed. Log each check with initials and date, and keep spare pads and a battery according to the manufacturer's guidance. Use the expiration dates you recorded in Step 3 to schedule replacements before they lapse.

Then rehearse. Run at least one realistic drill per year, using a manikin and an AED trainer, and ideally vary the scenario: a different shift, a different floor, an unannounced start. Use a stopwatch to capture the interval from collapse to the moment the AED is ready to deliver a shock. Also note when 911 was called and when a mock EMS crew reached the patient.

Treat the results as a diagnostic, not a pass or fail grade. Drills commonly expose real problems:

Blocked or locked access to the AED
Signage that cannot be seen from the work area
Staff who do not know who the designated responders are
Confusion over the address or entrance given to dispatch

Fix each problem, update the plan, and record what changed. Repeat the drill after significant changes, such as a renovation, a new tenant, or a shift in staffing.

Keeping Your Cardiac Emergency Program Current

Preparedness decays quietly, so put a review on the calendar now. Six months from today, sit down with the plan, the training roster, and the AED log, and compare them against reality: Who has left? Whose certification is close to expiring? Which AED checks were missed? Did layouts, shifts, or headcounts change?

Close any gaps you find with training, and consider booking a CPR, AED, or BLS course with Best Choice CPR so every shift and location has confident, current responders. Don't wait until an emergency happens, because seconds count and skills fade without practice. Register for a certification class today and gain the confidence to respond when someone needs help most.