Seven rural Kentucky health care organizations — two hospitals and five EMS services — have been awarded a total of more than $100,000 by the Kentucky Office of Rural Health (KORH) to support local education and training efforts focused on automated external defibrillators (AEDs), CPR and other advanced life-saving skills.

The funds were distributed through KORH’s Committed to the Community project, part of the larger Committed to the Heart Initiative which seeks to improve out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest survival rates among residents of the rural counties served by the state’s 28 designated critical access hospitals. Critical access hospitals and EMS services in their service region were invited to apply for funds to carry out projects that would fit with the goals of the Committed to the Heart Initiative.

Organizations receiving the funds include: Barbourville ARH Hospital, Mercy Health-Marcum and Wallace Hospital, Carroll County EMS, Franklin-Simpson County Ambulance Service, Pendleton County Ambulance Taxing District, Russell County Ambulance Service and Woodford County EMS.