Nobody in a dental or medical office thinks about BLS cards until someone notices a date. It usually turns up during onboarding, or when the office manager opens the certification folder and finds two cards that expired last month. Then it becomes urgent, and the class itself is not the hard part. The hard part is finding one that does not mean closing the office for a day or sending staff to a hospital campus an hour away.
If your practice is in McHenry, Johnsburg, Spring Grove, Fox Lake, or anywhere nearby, classes are held in Lakemoor and the full BLS Provider course runs about 90 minutes.
Which BLS course your team actually needs
There are two versions, and booking the wrong one wastes a trip.
BLS Provider is $85 and runs 90 minutes. This is the course for anyone taking it for the first time, and for anyone whose card lapsed who has not done any online coursework.
BLS Renewal is $79 and runs 45 to 60 minutes. It is shorter because the classroom portion is the skills session only. To take it you need your HeartCode Part 1 online completion certificate in hand. If nobody on your staff has finished HeartCode yet, renewal is not the class to book. Every course and price sits side by side on the class prices page.
What the class covers
BLS is the American Heart Association course built for people who work in a clinical setting, so the pace assumes you already know the terminology. You spend most of the time on the floor with a manikin rather than watching slides.
- High quality compressions on adult, child, and infant manikins
- Rescue breathing and bag mask ventilation
- AED use, including pad placement and what changes with a child
- Choking relief for a responsive patient and for one who goes unresponsive
- Team based resuscitation, which is the part that matters when four people in a small office all respond at once
That last item is the reason a lot of practices train together instead of sending people one at a time. In a treatment room, the difference between a good response and a chaotic one is usually not individual skill. It is whether the people in the room have practiced dividing the work.
Training the whole office at once
If more than a few people need cards, onsite group training is usually the cleaner option. Training comes to your location anywhere in the service area and is quoted per group at group rates. Practices often schedule it after the last patient of the day or on a day the office is already closed, so nobody burns paid time off and the front desk stays covered.
You can book onsite training directly through the onsite group training link, or describe your group first and get a quote back.
Who teaches it
Classes are taught by Ray Mamerow, a certified American Heart Association instructor with more than 30 years in healthcare who has been teaching CPR since 2010. That background matters more in a clinical class than a general one, because the questions your staff will ask are specific. What do we do with the patient in the chair. Where does our AED live and who grabs it. How do we hand off to the paramedics when they walk in.
The about page has more background, and the testimonials page collects the reviews behind a 5.0 star rating across 49 Google reviews if you want a sense of the room before you book your team into it.
Cards are issued before anyone leaves
Every class ends with a two year AHA card issued at the end of class. For an office that has to produce documentation on short notice, that is the whole ballgame. Nobody is waiting on a mailed card or chasing a portal login the week a credentialing packet is due.
One habit worth building: when the cards are handed out, put the expiration date into the office calendar two years ahead with a reminder set 60 days before. Renewing before a card expires is faster and cheaper than restarting after it lapses, because the lapsed path sends people back to the full Provider course.
Scheduling around patient hours
Classes run seven days a week, roughly 9:00am to 6:30pm, and weekend classes are available on request. There is no waiting list, so you are not holding a spot on a form and hoping something opens up next quarter.
If a card already expired and someone needs to be back on the schedule immediately, emergency scheduling is $150 and is often available the same day or the next day. It costs more than a standard seat, which is exactly why the calendar reminder above is worth the 30 seconds.
Book your staff in
Pick a time at calendly.com/links4life. If you are not sure whether your people need Provider or Renewal, text 815-690-0664 with how many staff you have and when their cards expired, and you will get a straight answer. You can also reach out through the contact page or email Links4lifecpr@gmail.com. Classes are held at 28959 Pilgrims Pass, Lakemoor, IL 60051.
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