Ready When You Are: AED Pad Expiration Reminders

AEDs are designed to stand by and be ready to save a life in the event of a sudden cardiac arrest. They remain in a wall cabinet and are often out of sight and out of mind. However, the shock-delivering defibrillation pads with the AED have a shelf life and run the risk of not properly adhering to the patient after their expiration date. Pads are a single-use item, and a life could depend on them working correctly. During an emergency, rescuers can be at the mercy of the equipment and have no backup if the pads are past their expiration date. Despite the importance of stocking up-to-date and non-expired pads, keeping track of the expiration date can be difficult. The AED doesn’t alert you when its pads expire, and tracking one (or many) expiration dates becomes a manual, repetitive chore. So we decided to offer a free service to help you keep track of when it’s time to change AED pads—introducing the Pad Expiration Reminder from MME. This tracker is simple and easy to use. Once you’ve logged in or created your MME account, you can view the pad tracker interface by clicking “Pad Tracker” in your account dashboard. Once you’re in the tracker, you can add a new instance of a pad by choosing your pad type, entering the pad’s expiration date, and selecting how long before the expiration date you want an email reminder. You can also add follow-up reminders as well as additional email recipients. To add more pads, find your pad in the dropdown, enter its new information, and click submit. Note: Depending on your specific pad’s lead time or manufacturer delays, you may want to allow a generous reminder interval to ensure time for your new pads to arrive. When you’ve entered a new pad, it displays as a color-coded progress bar, displaying the expiration date and the number of days before it expires. The “Order New Pads” button allows you to immediately add an identical pad to your cart and checkout entirely online. When you receive a pad reminder email, it will give all the relevant information and a quick link to reorder those same pads. We want to offer our reminder system to you free of charge to remove the worry and hassle of expired and out-of-date pads. Your AED will not be able to save a life with outdated pads; let us help keep you equipped to save a life. Don’t see your pad listed as an option in our pad tracker? Contact one of our customer support agents in the chat box on the bottom right of the screen, or call us at 866.468.9558. In addition, we offer annual preventative maintenance for AEDs to ensure your equipment is always ready to save a life.

Jake Beals Master Medical Equipment, Content Strategist