WHO ARE ASHI AND ST. JOHN?
In 1996, the American Safety and Health Institute (ASHI) was organized, according to its Mission Statement, as "an organization of professional educators providing nationally-recognized training programs across the United States and in several foreign countries. ASHI's mission is to continually improve safety and health education by promoting high standards for members, principles of sound research for curriculum development, and the professional development of safety and health instructors worldwide."
As of mid-2006, ASHI had become the third largest training accreditation organization in the United States, with more than 6,500 Independent Training Centers, and more than 30,000 authorized Instructors, offering a wide variety of basic and advanced healthcare and safety programs to both citizen responders and licensed healthcare professionals. The word "independent" means just that; ASHI is NOT a franchise. Its Instructors and Training Center Directors are members of ASHI; not employees or contractors. ASHI, with its National Office in Holiday, Florida (about 35 miles north of St. Petersburg on Florida's West Coast), authorizes its members to utilize the materials it produces to present its programs, then allows its members to conduct its programs as independent businessmen (and women) as the member chooses (for-profit, not-for-profit, sole ownership, partnership, or corporation).
In March of 2006, ASHI proudly announced a formal alliance with St. John Ambulance Canada (SJA). SJA is the #1 provider of EMS services in Canada, with chapters in every province of that country, and has been organized for over 118 years. SJA is also the leading provider of CPR, First Aid, Automated External Defibrillator, and practically every form of healthcare and safety program in Canada, educating over 600,000 people in these programs every year, through a network of over 7,000 training centers nationwide. SJA deploys a force of over 25,000 volunteers worldwide to all manner of disasters, natural and man-made. For example, during the 9/11 disaster in our country, SJA volunteers were not only sent to "Ground Zero" to assist in the effort there, but, when the airports closed in the United States, and aircraft were diverted to Canada, SJA volunteers were also on the ground at those Canadian airports, offering aid and comfort to the diverted passengers. SJA volunteers have also deployed to the Sri Lanka tsunami disaster, Hurricane Katrina, and the Manitoba flood disaster in Canada itself. SJA also manufactures and markets some of the finest First Aid Kits and medical supplies available, and holds a 70% market share in distributing those products (more than the American Red Cross and the American Heart Association combined!).
SJA is directly allied with the Order of St. John; the oldest humanitarian organization in the world. The Order of St. John was established over 950 years ago, steeping its roots in treating battlefield wounds during the Crusades. The Order of St. John also operates the oldest and largest not-for-profit hospital in the world in Jerusalem. The Order of St. John operates priories and chapters in over 50 countries worldwide, including the U.S.
What this means is, besides giving SJA an inroad into the United States for marketing and distributing its merchandise, it gave the American Safety and Health Institute true international status, aligning itself into a training organization of over 13,500 Training Centers and over 85,000 Instructors in over 50 countries.
In 2007, two major changes occurred within the ASHI organization. ASHI was acquired by a capital management firm known as The Riverside Group, giving ASHI a means to expand its organization, its base of products and services available to be offered, and new inroads in providing quality service to its students. After this acquisition, ASHI moved its corporate offices to Warrensville Heights, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland.
Shortly afterward, Riverside Group also acquired Medic First Aid International, an organization created in the United Kingdom, and also recognized worldwide as a healthcare education provider. Since this alliance, ASHI and Medic First Aid are now under one umbrella known as Health and Safety Institute (HSI), with its U.S. headquarters located in Eugene, Oregon, and is now truly in a position of worldwide leadership in healthcare education.
"ORGANIZATION OF PROFESSIONAL EDUCATORS"
ASHI develops the curricula for its programs by not only collaborating with organizations such as the American Heart Association, the American Stroke Association, the American Red Cross, the National Safety Council, and Medic First Aid, but also with the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the National Center for Early Defibrillation, and many other healthcare and safety regulating agencies. ASHI also seeks and receives technical assistance from a wide variety of hospitals, fire and police departments, and EMS agencies in producing the visual aids used by its Instructors, such as videos and PowerPoint(TM) presentations. The attention to detail in ASHI programs is so complete that its provider-level CPR course is accredited by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO), which is considered to be the "gold standard" for healthcare organizations.
Becoming an ASHI member means becoming an Instructor. ASHI's primary means to that end is through its Instructor Development Course; a 16-hour program which guides the prospective candidate, who also must be certified in professional-level CPR and Basic First Aid, through proven methods in educating and training adult students, as well as the course guidelines for the programs he/she will be teaching. Licensed healthcare professionals, such as a physician (MD or DO), registered nurse, nurse practicioner, or paramedic, with documentable experience in teaching healthcare skills at a provider level, can also apply to become members. Finally, authorized Instructors from the American Heart Association, American Red Cross, National Safety Council, Medic First Aid, or St. John Ambulance are also welcome to become members through reciprocal agreements.
ASHI also holds its members to strict written guidelines for professionalism, quality control, and adherence to the medical guidelines for its individual programs, by means of a Training Center Administrative Manual (TCAM). The TCAM is rigidly enforced; serious or repeated violations of the TCAM can result in suspension or revocation of membership privileges. All ASHI Training Centers must provide every student with the opportunity to submit a written evaluation of the program they received, and the Instructor who provided it. This evaluation, along with all written documents concerning a student's program (examination scores, course rosters, etc.), must be kept on file at the Training Center office for no less than three years, and must also be available at any time for review or audit by an ASHI Regional Instructor Trainer. All advanced programs, such as First Responder, Advanced Cardiac Life Support, or Pediatric Advanced Life Support, must also have mandatory physician-level (MD or DO) oversight to insure successful completion of courses according to all accepted guidelines and protocols.
NOTE: All logos used in this section are Registered Trademarks of the American Safety and Health Institute and St. John Ambulance Canada. PowerPoint is a Registered Trademark of Microsoft Corporation.