Since 1977, Life Support Systems has helped multi-location businesses stay prepared. We provide AEDs, maintenance, and training as one managed program that works the same way at every location in your system. Not just the corporate stores. Every location.
Speak with an expert to tailor a program for your organization.
Sudden cardiac arrest is survivable. What changes the odds is how fast someone reaches a working AED.
sudden cardiac arrests happen outside
hospitals in the U.S. every year, and
nearly 3 in 10 strike in workplaces and
public spaces like yours.
(CDC, American Red Cross)
defibrillation is delayed, the
chance of survival drops by up
to 10 percent.
(OSHA, American Red Cross)
of people survive when everyone waits for
EMS. With immediate defibrillation, studies
show survival as high as 60 percent.
(OSHA)
A franchise system is a promise of consistency. Customers walk into any location expecting the same experience, and franchisees join the system trusting that its standards are worth adopting. Emergency readiness belongs on that list of standards, and it is the one that comes with a clock.
When sudden cardiac arrest happens, ambulance response averages about seven minutes nationally and runs longer in many areas. Resuscitation rarely succeeds after ten. In practical terms, the outcome is usually decided before EMS arrives, by whether an AED was nearby, maintained, and in trained hands. That is not a reason for alarm. It is a reason for a standard.
Franchise systems face a specific version of this challenge: many locations are independently owned and operated. Without a centralized program, readiness quietly becomes whatever each owner gets around to, and the system’s real safety standard is its least-prepared location. In businesses where customers are on the floor every day, that gap is not theoretical. It is the brand’s name on the door when the moment comes.
There is a workforce case too. Franchise businesses run on frontline teams, and turnover is expensive at every single location. Gallup finds that employees who strongly agree their employer cares about their wellbeing are 69 percent less likely to be looking for another job and five times more likely to trust leadership. A systemwide readiness standard tells every team member, at every location, that the brand behind the counter is looking after them too. That is the kind of standard people stay for.
In a franchise system, one location’s gap is the brand’s exposure, and it multiplies by every door.
An analysis of FDA reports published in Annals of Emergency Medicine linked 1,150 deaths to AED failures over a 15-year period, and nearly half of those failures traced to batteries, pads, and connectors. Those are the parts with expiration dates.
In 2022 the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a national fitness chain could be held liable when staff failed to use an AED that was on site. The device was there. The standard was not.
Your brand does not. Registration, training, and maintenance requirements differ by state, and liability immunity is often conditional on meeting them. A system that leaves compliance to each owner is compliant only at its most diligent location.
The franchisee’s LLC is on the lease. The brand is on the door, and the brand is what people remember.
The cost of non-compliance is rarely a fine. It is a claim, a headline, and a system of owners asking why there was no standard. That cost can run into the millions. The standard that prevents it does not.
A standardized AED program that rolls out the same way at every location in your system, regardless of format or footprint, with brand-agnostic equipment selection.
Centralized tracking, scheduled inspections, and compliance documentation across the whole system. When leadership asks "are we covered?", you have one clear answer for every location, even the independently owned ones, instead of a location-by location chase.
On-site American Red Cross certification, scheduled around each location's operating hours. Confident, trained staff respond faster, and in the first minutes, speed is what moves the survival numbers
Every location serviced by our own full-time team, coast
to coast. Nothing subcontracted, nothing inconsistent
between regions
Step one is one phone call, not a systemwide project
We review your system's footprint and the current state of readiness, location by location.
A standardized deployment plan built for consistency across every location.
Staff certified through American Red Cross programs, delivered on-site.
Centralized maintenance, tracking, and compliance documentation across the system, continuously.
A mandate is a floor, not a standard of care, and franchise systems are in the business of setting standards above the floor. More than 350,000 sudden cardiac arrests happen outside hospitals each year, and survival falls with every minute defibrillation is delayed. If an event ever happens at a location, the question won’t be whether an AED was required. It will be whether the system’s standard put one there, working.
It starts at the top and rolls out one location at a time. We work with you to define the readiness standard for the system, then coordinate assessment, installation, and training directly with each owner so nothing depends on individual franchisees interpreting the standard on their own. Every location is tracked in AEDTrack, so you can see which sites are covered, which are scheduled, and which are still open, without adding work for corporate or for the owner. Independent ownership does not have to mean inconsistent readiness.
No. We service and support all major AED brands, so existing equipment stays in place and gets maintained to the same standard as everything else. That said, many franchisors choose to standardize for new and remodeled locations, the same way they standardize signage or kitchen equipment, because one model means one set of pads, one battery type, and one training experience across the system. We can help you decide whether that makes sense for your brand. Either way, every device ends up in one program with one point of contact.
Systemwide readiness sounds like a heavy lift. It starts as a short consultation that shows you where every location stands today and what one consistent standard would take. The numbers above are the reason to have that conversation this quarter instead of next.
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