Is Your AED On The Map? How AED Registration Connects Your Device To 911
Short answer: AED registration puts your device on the map a 911 dispatcher is looking at, so a caller can be directed to it during a cardiac arrest. It takes a few minutes and costs nothing. You need the model, the serial number, the exact location, and the hours the building is accessible. An unregistered AED is invisible to the dispatcher, no matter how close it is.
On September 18, 2026, Frederick County Fire and Rescue in Maryland announced it had joined PulsePoint AED and the National Emergency AED Registry, and asked residents to download the free app and register the AEDs they know about. The department responds to roughly 300 working cardiac arrest events in a typical year.
The announcement is local. The gap it points at is not.
What Happens On A 911 Call
Somebody collapses. A bystander calls 911. From that moment the dispatcher is running two tracks at once: getting compressions started over the phone, and getting the caller to a defibrillator if one is close enough to be worth the trip.
That second track only works if the dispatcher can see a device. Dispatch systems draw on a registry of AED locations. When there is a registered device nearby, the dispatcher can name it: there is an AED in the lobby of the building across the parking lot, send someone for it now.
When there is no registered device nearby, the call proceeds as though there is no AED within a mile. Not because the dispatcher is careless, but because from where they are sitting, there isn't one. A defibrillator in the narthex of the church fifty feet from where the patient is lying is, functionally, not there.
That is the whole problem, and it is entirely solvable in about five minutes per device.
What AED Registration Actually Is
The word covers a few different things that overlap, which is part of why it gets skipped.
| What it is | What it does |
|---|---|
| National Emergency AED Registry | A registry maintained by local communities across North America, reachable at aed.new, that makes a device's location available to participating dispatch |
| PulsePoint AED | The app layer used by participating agencies to collect and verify AED locations, and in some areas to alert nearby trained responders |
| Local dispatch registration | Registration directly with the agency that answers 911 for your address. Some agencies run their own process independent of any national registry |
| State registration requirements | A separate, binding layer in some states, sometimes tied to facility type. Not the same thing as voluntary registration, and not satisfied by it |
Practically: register with the national registry, and separately confirm what your local 911 agency and your state require. Those are three checkboxes, not one, and doing the easy one does not close the other two.
What You Need Before You Register
Four pieces of information per device. Have them in hand and the registration itself takes minutes.
- Make and model. On the label on the device.
- Serial number. Same label. On most units you do not need to open anything to read it.
- Exact placement. Not the street address. The sentence a dispatcher would say out loud: main lobby, right of the reception desk, in a wall cabinet. Floor and building number where there is more than one.
- Building access hours. When the building is actually open, and whether the device is reachable outside those hours.
A named point of contact is worth adding wherever the form allows it, ideally a role rather than a person: facilities manager, front office, head athletic trainer. Roles outlast the people holding them.
Notice that these are the same four fields a working AED inventory already holds. If you have an accurate inventory, registration is data entry. If registration feels hard, the inventory is the actual finding, and that is a more valuable thing to have discovered than a registry entry.
How To Keep The Listing Accurate
A registry entry is a claim about the world that slowly stops being true. Three things break it.
The device moves. A renovation, a department relocation, a new cabinet by the other entrance. The listing still points at the old wall.
The building's hours change. A school that was open until 9pm for community programs now locks at 4pm. A church that was open daily is now open Sundays and Wednesdays. The listing overstates availability, which is worse than understating it.
The contact leaves. The registration was made under a personal name and email, and nobody inherits it.
The fix is to attach a registry review to something that already recurs. Pad and battery expirations are the natural anchor, because you are already touching every device on that schedule. When you check the pads, confirm the listing.
A Note For Schools, Churches And Gyms
These three come up constantly, and they share a specific problem: a registered device behind a locked door on a Sunday is a listing that misleads.
A school gymnasium hosts a youth league on a Saturday. The AED is in the main building, which is locked. A dispatcher sees a registered device at that address and sends a caller for it. The caller finds a locked door and loses ninety seconds they will not get back.
Three ways out of that, in order of preference:
- Move or add a device to the space that is actually used after hours. The gym, the fellowship hall, the field house.
- Use an outdoor-rated cabinet where climate and the building layout allow it, so the device is reachable without entering the locked portion.
- At minimum, state the access limitation in the listing. Accessible during school hours only is a true statement that helps a dispatcher make a better decision than a listing that implies round-the-clock access.
Gyms and health clubs should also check their state requirements specifically. Several states have AED statutes written for health clubs in particular, covering registration, training and maintenance, and those requirements are separate from any voluntary registry.
Where Registration Fits In A Complete Program
Registration is one of six things that make an AED a program rather than a purchase:
- An accurate inventory with model, serial number and location
- Pad and battery expiration tracking against a calendar
- Registration with local dispatch, and with your state where required
- Training records and refresher dates for expected responders
- Medical direction or physician oversight where your state requires it
- A post-event process, so a real use produces retrievable data and the device gets back into service
Registration is the cheapest item on that list and the one most often skipped, because it is the only one that produces no visible artifact. Nothing arrives in the mail. Nobody sends a certificate. The benefit is entirely invisible right up until the one call where it is the whole thing.
Do This Week
Pick the devices at your most-used site. Pull the model and serial number off each one, write down exactly where it sits and when that space is accessible, and register them at aed.new. Then call your local fire or EMS agency and ask whether they maintain their own AED registration separate from the national registry. Many do.
It costs nothing and it takes an afternoon at most. We have helped organizations build and maintain these lists since 2003, and AEDs are our only business. If you need a hand finding a model or serial number on a device you are looking at right now, call us at 888-541-2337.
Related Reading
- HeartSine samaritan PAD Recall 2026: How To Check Your Serial Numbers Without Taking The AED Off The Wall
- ANSI/ISEA Z308.1-2026: What The Updated First Aid Standard Means For Your AED Program
Sources And Further Reading
- The River 95.3, September 18, 2026 ā FCFR join PulsePoint for quick access to AEDs
- National Emergency AED Registry ā aed.new registration portal
This article explains how AED registration works and why it matters. It is not legal advice and does not replace your state's AED requirements or a manufacturer's instructions for use. Registration requirements vary by state and by facility type, so confirm what applies to you, and make sure the people expected to use an AED have current training.
