The FDA did away with prescriptions for AEDs two years ago or more, maybe three.
ANyone can purchase them online now, no doctor needed.
You do not need a doctor to act as medical control. However, if you are placing one in a school, you need to check with the schoolboards legal representation, the county,city whomever.
There may be laws requiring certain conditions being met such as a daily/weekly log with regards to inspecting the equipment and making sure it is in service, training an adequate number of staff members to respond and be able to handle the situation,etc.
I remember a few years back when a school district paid out a massive lawsuit because even though they had an AED and staff members trained in the usage, they failed to defibrillate the child in cardiac arrest. Why did this happen?
Because no one could find the AED pads. Where were the pads? They were in the flap of the AED. They went through typical AED training but was never told the pads were stored in the flap. These are teachers not emergency responders so there is a certain level of panic, especially when it involves a child. Lesson learned: Do real scenarios, hooking everything up, responding from where the AED is kept, not just haviing everything all hooked up in a class and saying clear, analyze shock.
