Georgia § 31-11-130 - Legislative findings.

§ 31-11-130. Legislative findings.

The General Assembly finds and declares that: Cardiovascular disease is the number one cause of death in the United States and in Georgia; Georgia ranks as the thirty-eighth worst in the nation for numbers of deaths from cardiovascular disease; There were 79,901 deaths in Georgia in 2015, and cardiovascular disease (excluding stroke) accounted for 23.6 percent of such deaths; Approximately 40 percent of cardiac deaths occur suddenly, the result of a heart attack that is manifested by an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest; As of 2016, several states, but notably Arizona and Washington, have designated hospitals that are expert in cardiovascular disease care, much in the way that Georgia has stroke and trauma centers; Arizona and Washington have some of the lowest death rates for patients who have heart attacks, in part due to their designated cardiac centers; and Therefore, it is in the best interest of the residents of this state to establish a program to identify emergency cardiac care centers throughout the state to ensure the rapid triage, assessment, treatment, and transport of patients experiencing out-of-hospital cardiac arrest or heart attack or its complications. (Code 1981, § 31-11-130 , enacted by Ga. L. 2017, p. 302, § 1/SB 102.)