Hundreds still available

Three times as many Kentucky counties will get cardiopulmonary resuscitation kits for infants, funded by the Kentucky Association of Health Plans, representing health-insurance companies in the state.

The American Heart Association is delivering the life-saving CPR kits to healthcare facilities to give to new parents. Each kit includes an inflatable mannikin and video that teaches infant CPR in as little as 20 minutes.

The initiative, launched in May 2022, has provided 3,000 kits to neonatal intensive-care units in 11 counties. A $150,000 grant from KAHP is funding 4,350 more kits, nearly 2,500 of which have been distributed in 21 counties: Bath, Bell, Boyd, Casey, Clark, Estill, Floyd, Garrard, Harlan, Hyden, Jackson, Johnson, Madison, Montgomery, Nicholas, Perry, Pike, Powell, Rockcastle, Rowan, and Warren.

“Rural communities often face a critical shortage of health-care professionals,” said Ashley Sokoler, AHA’s Kentuckiana director. “That’s why it’s so important to make CPR training available to new parents in rural areas and provide the healthcare facilities they visit with the resources needed to implement training without causing additional strain on their staff.”

Hospitals, clinics, and other healthcare providers interested in requesting kits can contact AHA Kentuckiana Community Impact Director Tracy Monks at tracy.monks@heart.org for information.

Kentucky Health News is an independent news service of the Institute for Rural Journalism and Community Issues, based in the School of Journalism and Media at the University of Kentucky, with support from the Foundation for a Healthy Kentucky.