BWI (Baltimore Washington International Airport) was one of the first airports in the nation to receive a CPR Kiosk. The kiosk is located in the airport's B Terminal, the busiest, which houses Southwest Airlines' gates. Southwest operates 70 percent of the airport's flights. Millions of passengers have access to the kiosk yearly.
The kiosk program is operated by the American Heart Association and funded by the Amerigroup Foundation. According to the American Heart Association, more than 350,000 cardiac arrests happen outside of hospitals, and more than 20 percent of those occur in public places like airports, casinos and sporting facilities. Hands-only CPR has been proved to be equally effective as conventional mouth-to-mouth CPR, with the added benefit of people being likelier to be comfortable performing it.
The interactive kiosk features a touch screen with a video program that gives a brief “how-to,” followed by a practice session and a 30-second CPR test. With the help of a practice manikin, or a rubber torso, the kiosk gives feedback about the depth and rate of compressions and proper hand placement – factors that influence the effectiveness of CPR.
The kiosk doesn't provide any formal certification, but is designed to give the user more confidence in rendering aid to a person in need. Immediate CPR can double or triple the chances of survival for someone in cardiac arrest.
There are now over 30 kiosks across the country.
