United Hatzalah of Israel, the organization on which United Rescue is based, was founded in 2006 and is the largest independent, non-profit, and fully volunteer EMS organization in Israel. With more than 3,000 medics, paramedics, and doctors of every socioeconomic and religious background, its mission is to provide the fastest, most reliable emergency medical first response in Israel. Its innovative LifeCompass Command Center uses advanced GPSbased dispatch technology to identify the closest and most qualified volunteers to the scene of an emergency and routes those individuals through a mobile device application. On sudden cardiac arrest calls – the truest measure of emergency medical performance – United Hatzalah’s success is reflected by tangible results. As our response times and quality of care have improved, so too have national survival rates. In the 10 years since United Hatzalah’s inception, the rate of cardiac arrest deaths in Israel has decreased by 50%, according to the Israel Heart Society. At 46.4 deaths per 100,000 people, the World Health Organization reports that Israel ranks 12th best out of 192 countries in terms of coronary-related mortality. It is an unusual sight— Arabs wearing orange vests printed with the red Star of David teaming up with… Orthodox Jews. And the partners have only praise for each other…Forget all the politics and themes, people need to live. Fadi
Bahir
Arab In a
United
Hatzalah
volunteer
Jersey City, volunteers complete their CBEC graduation ceremony attended by Mayor
Successful
Pilot
in
Jersey
training Steven
with Fulop. City
Established in 2015 by Mayor Fulop as a partnership with Jersey City Medical Center, United Rescue Jersey City was created to lower first response times across the city. The program was launched as a result of three factors: Mayoral leadership, a commitment to innovation within the EMS program (and the Jersey City Medical Center that operates the EMS), and tremendous local civic support for the project. In addition, there was a strong existing culture of excellence across the EMS program in the city, and the professional EMS staff recognized the value that deploying volunteer first responders would provide to supporting their efforts to reduce response times across the city. Within 12 months of the program launch, the first cohort of 50 CBECs was trained and in the field responding to emergency medical calls throughout the city. Volunteer CBECs have already responded to hundreds of calls and are averaging three to five minute response times.
The New Jersey Department of Homeland Security recently announced a $200,000 grant to United Rescue to purchase medical equipment for the next two cohorts of volunteers. This partnership is one that can be expanded in New Jersey and replicated in other states, providing an ongoing source of federal funding for cities implementing United Rescue.