The following groups can become GoodSAM responders in South Australia.

• People with first aid training
• Registered Health Practitioners who are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
• Tertiary healthcare students who are registered with the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
• SA Ambulance Service staff and volunteers with clinical or first aid training

Yes. Downloading the GoodSAM app and becoming a GoodSAM responder is entirely voluntary and no employment relationship will be formed.

To register as a GoodSAM responder, go to https:\\www.goodsamapp.org/saas and complete the registration form.

The registration process requires photographic ID, such as a driver’s licence, student ID card or work ID tag, to be scanned or photographed,  saved as a JPG and uploaded.

Registered health practitioners also need to provide their Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency registration number.

The GoodSAM Responder app can be found on App Store and Google Play.

Search with ‘GoodSAM Responder’ as there are other apps with ‘Good Sam’ in their name.

After you have downloaded the app, the Simulate An Alert feature allows you to explore its functionality. You can use this feature to understand what to expect and feel comfortable when you receive a real alert.

Be sure to familiarise yourself with the features under the Actions button, including selecting the On Scene button when you arrive at a GoodSAM event.

In order to receive alerts, you need to have the GoodSAM app open.  You don’t have to be in the app itself but should have it open in the background.  If you swipe up the app, log out or reset your phone, the GoodSAM app switches off.  Please occasionally check to make sure it is still running.

You can set GoodSAM to override your phone’s silent function if you wish. However, you are not required to activate this function. You can manage Critical Alerts in settings in the app. Instructions on how to do this can be found on the GoodSAM website at  https://www.goodsamapp.org/help.

If your phone is set-up to send messages to your watch, then ONLY the watch will make a sound and not your phone.

GoodSAM responders may be alerted to a cardiac arrest when travelling interstate or overseas if the app is used in that region and you have an active data connection.

Your first consideration should be whether you are capable to attend, taking into account your current circumstances and responsibilities, fitness to respond, and alcohol and drug use.

If you have the capability to respond and provide safe and reasonable care, then you may ‘accept’ the alert on your mobile device. When you press ‘accept’ you will receive further details, including the location.

You are advised to follow the GoodSAM Terms and Conditions and Code of Conduct Australia.

Key points to remember are:

• SAAS recommends the use of personal protective equipment (PPE) such as disposable gloves and face masks with any patient contact. Please consider having these items in a bag in your car or home, in readiness to respond.
• Navigate safely to the patient’s location (or the closest AED if advised by GoodSAM) as directed by the map function in GoodSAM
• Adhere to road laws
• Adhere to local security requirements of any premises you enter

SAAS will endeavour to filter out events which may pose a safety threat to responders. However, responders should exercise due diligence for safety and you will be supported if you choose not to enter an environment which you feel may not be safe

When arriving at the GoodSAM event, identify yourself as a GoodSAM responder, clearly state that an ambulance is still on the way, and that you are here to offer assistance until ambulance crews arrive. This will ensure the caller remains on the phone to the Triple Zero (000) call-taker.

A rule of thumb may be that if you think that you’ve had too much alcohol to drive legally, then you should not accept a GoodSAM alert.

The volunteer liability protection offered by the South Australia Volunteers Protection Act, 2001 (Section 4) exemption states:

The immunity does not operate if the volunteer’s ability to carry out the work properly was, at the relevant time, significantly impaired by a recreational drug.

Responders are also reminded of their responsibilities to adhere to the GoodSAM Terms of Conditions and Code of Conduct Australia.

During the course of an accepted GoodSAM event, we encourage all registered health professionals to consider themselves as “practising their profession” even though the setting and equipment available do not reflect this. We encourage all registered health professionals to consider the guidelines specific to their profession.

Prior to considering signing up to be a GoodSAM responder, you are strongly encouraged to discuss this with your employer in preparation for this eventuality. Discussion with your employer about your responder status, whether you are supported to respond in working hours and whether you are supported to respond prior to the commencement of your day needs to be discussed and agreed.

Yes. You can subsequently reject the alert.

If you do not intend to accept the alert, then reject it as soon as possible. This will ensure that the next closest available responder can receive an alert quickly. It is okay not to accept an alert, and we understand that accidental acceptance may occur.

To cancel your acceptance, tap the Actions tab and then Drop the Call.

If the GoodSAM app shows that the alert has been cancelled, please do not continue to the location.

It is possible that the event location was updated to another area, or it may be that new details have emerged, and the case may not be safe or appropriate for someone other than an on-duty SAAS crew.

The GoodSAM responder will receive:

• Address/event location
• Patient’s age and gender, if known
• A broad description of the patient’s condition, such as ‘likely cardiac arrest’.

After the event, these details will not be retained on the responder’s mobile device. Responders must not take a ‘screenshot’ after accepting the alert.

Once the GoodSAM event is over, or the response is completed or cancelled, no data will be accessible via the GoodSAM application.

Upon registration, responders should be mindful of their obligations on patient confidentiality and privacy, as outlined in the GoodSAM Code of Conduct. More advice on patient confidentiality is outlined further below in these FAQs.

Locate your PPE – e.g, disposable gloves and face mask – if you have them available and on hand.

If a publicly available AED is nearby and listed in GoodSAM, its location will appear in the GoodSAM app for the responder to view. All responders will be given the same information and it is not possible to send one responder to the AED and another straight to the patient.

This depends on the location of the event. In more densely populated areas, responders may be alerted if they are within 400 metres of a cardiac emergency, but in regional or remote areas, the response radius may be up to 15 km. The response radiuses are set out below.

• Adelaide CBD: 400m
• Adelaide metropolitan area and major regional cities including Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, Port Pirie and Port Lincoln: 600m
• Inner regional, e.g, Port Wakefield, Murray Bridge: 5km
• Outer regional, e.g, Keith, Meningie): 15km
• Remote and very remote, e.g, Lameroo, Kangaroo Island: 15km (unless excluded by Gayle’s Law)

It is currently unclear whether the area denoted by Gayle’s Law (Health Practitioner Regulation National Law (South Australia) (Remote Area Attendance) Amendment Act 2017) applies to programs such as GoodSAM.

As such, the area denoted by Gayle’s Law will be excluded from generating an alert in GoodSAM.

Medical emergencies are often confusing and uncontrolled environments, and your safety is paramount. If entering the patient’s location will put you at risk, you are advised not to do so. You are reminded to assess the risks before you enter, continue to monitor safety during the event and avoid placing yourself at risk wherever possible.

If there is a security checkpoint, e.g, in a corporate building, airport or military base, you will be subject to their security procedures.

If you are not permitted entry, when you arrive to offer your help, you are not to enter.

To ensure the Triple Zero (000) caller remains on the phone with SAAS, explain who you are and that an ambulance is coming but you’re here to help as a GoodSAM responder in the meantime.

For example “My name’s Lisa and I’m a GoodSAM Responder. SA Ambulance has told me that someone here needs help. Can I help while they are on the way?”

If you accept a GoodSAM alert, you can only be expected to act within the limitations of what you have available to you. This will typically mean the provision of basic life support skills such as airway support, CPR and the use of an AED if one is available.

Act within your scope of practice to the extent you are able, but you cannot be held accountable for not providing care dependent on equipment that you do not have available.

The Simulate An Alert feature allows you to explore the functionality of the GoodSAM app, including the Actions tab. You can explore this feature to familiarise yourself of what to expect and feel comfortable when you receive a real alert.

When the SAAS paramedics or emergency services arrive, you must hand over care of the patient to them.

Let paramedics know how you found the patient (e.g, lying on the floor, not breathing) and what you have done to care for them. You may be asked to continue to assist with resuscitation efforts until more crews arrive.

Standard SAAS crew dispatch will occur as normal. SAAS aims to achieve arrival of a SAAS crew at cardiac arrest events within eight minutes in urban areas.

Patient privacy must be respected by all responders. You may be in receipt of privileged medical information in your capacity as a GoodSAM responder, and you are required to protect this information.

We acknowledge that responders may be more likely to render assistance to neighbours or people they know or who their contacts know, and that maintaining confidentiality can feel difficult. Key points to remember are:

• Do not retain any alert information on your phone. Any breach of this will result in exclusion from the program and referral to governing authorities.
• Do not share details of an event (such as location, time, date, patient name) which may identify a patient. Remember that in smaller or close-knit communities, even apparently vague information may allow a third party to identify a patient or learn more about their medical event.
• Any information gained can and should be given to the responding SAAS crews as part of a clinical handover.

Occasionally, SAAS will need to record the distribution of responders around the state in order to understand which areas may benefit from targeted calls for responder registration. We will endeavour to obtain and store such data without identifying (or re-identifiable) features.

When GoodSAM receives an event, it will record the location of responders within a designated radius, and such information must be identifiable in order to send the alert. SAAS will protect the confidentiality of this data as reasonably and legally appropriate and will not use this data stored in SAAS’s GoodSAM portal for reasons beyond governance, audit, approved research and alerting responders. Disclosure of any personal information will be governed by SA Health’s Privacy Policy Directive D0445 (May 2019).

A GoodSAM volunteer, whether registered as a health professional or not, when acting “off-duty” (hence without expectation of payment for services), to provide emergency assistance to another individual who appears to require such assistance, incurs no personal civil liability for an act or omission done or made in good faith and without recklessness in the course of carrying out community work for a community organisation unless:

1. a) the liability falls within the ambit of a scheme of compulsory third-party motor vehicle insurance;
2. b) the volunteer’s ability to carry out the work properly was, at the relevant time, significantly impaired by a recreational drug; or
3. c) the volunteer was acting, and knew or ought to have known that he or she was acting, outside the scope of the activities authorised by the community organisation; or the volunteer was acting, and knew or ought to have known that he or she was acting, contrary to instructions given by the community organisation.

(Volunteers Protection Act 2001, Section 4)

If a responder damages property with the intention of providing medical assistance at a GoodSAM event, it is unlikely the responder will be liable. The responder is to notify the SAAS crew on their arrival if this has occurred.

In the unlikely event that you are injured, advise SAAS so that you can be provided the appropriate care and support.

You can advise SAAS in the Post Event Report on the GoodSAM App and/or contact the SAAS GoodSAM team on Health.SAASGoodSAM@sa.gov.au. Insurance for  GoodSAM responders is through the South Australian Government Financing Authority.

If you have a current workers compensation claim, you should consider restrictions in place and not respond if unfit to do so or where responding might further exacerbate your injury.

Please use the following email address: Health.SAASGoodSAM@sa.gov.au for:

• Any queries, questions or concerns
• All feedback relating to the type of incidents alerted, information in the alerts, or other matters
• Questions that are not answered here, or if you need more information or support

For registration support or assistance on using the GoodSAM app, please email info@goodsamapp.org

Click here to go back to the GoodSAM overview page.

Click here to read the GoodSAM Code of Conduct for Australia.