UCF Healthcare partners to equip libraries with blood pressure monitors and AEDs
Libraries are so much more than a place to get books. Now, thanks to the Libraries with Heart program, libraries in Central Florida are places where community members can keep an eye on one aspect of their health. A partnership between HCA Florida Healthcare, the American Heart Association and the Orange County Library system lets patrons 18 and up check out blood pressure monitoring kits. In 2024, the kits were checked out 459 times.
"We meet people where they are, and so we try to bring our community work to life in settings like the library,鈥, vice president of community impact for the American Heart Association. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a place where people gather and spend a lot of their time and can access resources. It鈥檚 not just about checking out library books anymore.鈥
Each branch of the library has at least two staff members who have been trained to teach patrons how to use the kits; the system also has outreach teams that go into the community to get the kits into the hands of those who might not be able to go to the library, or who are unaware that the program exists.
Libraries with Heart has also provided automated external defibrillators (AEDs) to every library in the system; a donation from UCF Lake Nona Hospital covered those, as well as the cost of training library staffers in CPR and AED use.