Better Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) Outcomes Realised
Data from EMS providers in Arizona and the University of California San Diego Medical Center show that high-quality CPR helps save lives—and that ZOLL technology helps providers deliver high-quality CPR.1, 2
CPR Survival Rates More than Doubled with ZOLL Technology
When emergency responders in Mesa, Arizona, received specialised (scenario-based) training and used ZOLL defibrillators with Real CPR Help® and CPR Dashboard™ in the pre-hospital setting, patients’ odds of survival to discharge more than doubled.1 With ZOLL technologies, rescuers know when they are pushing hard and fast enough to meet current ERC Guidelines and also know how long they have been off the chest when compressions are paused.
As documented in the large study of 484 cardiac arrest patients, a victim is 2.72 times more likely to survive if the EMS provider uses Real CPR Help and the CPR Dashboard after receiving scenario-based training when compared to a similar patient who was treated by an EMS provider with traditional CPR training and no feedback technology.1 Among study participants whose cardiac arrest was both witnessed and due to ventricular fibrillation (a shockable rhythm), survival to discharge rates more than doubled, from 26.3% to 55.6%, when these patients were treated by an EMS provider who used feedback technology and received scenario-based training (Figure 1). These results were published in the Annals of Emergency Medicine in 2013.1
Figure 1. Survival from witnessed ventricular fibrillation (VF) cardiac arrest in Mesa, Arizona
The study was spearheaded by Bentley Bobrow, MD, medical director for the Arizona Department of Health Services Bureau of EMS and Trauma Systems. In an interview with Occupational Health & Safety, Dr Bobrow said, “There is mounting evidence that there is an enormous difference between outcomes for cardiac arrest victims when they gave good-quality CPR and bad-quality CPR. It’s also really challenging to do high-quality CPR; we think especially without the assistance of some technology that can help people do high-quality CPR.”
Advanced Resuscitation Training Program Improves Survival-to-Discharge Rate
The University of California, San Diego (UCSD) Medical Center uses ZOLL technology as part of its innovative and highly successful Advanced Resuscitation Training (ART) program. The brainchild of Daniel Davis, MD, director of UCSD’s Center for Resuscitation Science, ART is based on the core principle of preventing interruptions in compressions at all costs.
The UCSD hospitals use ZOLL ALS (advanced life support) defibrillators with Real CPR Help, CPR Dashboard, and ZOLL’s industry-exclusive See-Thru CPR® technology, which reduces the duration of pauses in CPR by enabling providers to see the patient’s underlying cardiac rhythm during CPR. In addition, for post-code debriefing and training, the hospitals use RescueNet® Code Review.
Since ART’s implementation at UCSD hospitals in 2007, the incidence of cardiac arrest is down, and the survival-to-discharge rate among patients who do suffer cardiac arrest now approaches 50% (Figure 2). The survival rate from cardiac arrest has doubled, increasing from 21% to 42%, since ART was instituted on the wards. In the intensive care unit, survival to discharge has increased from 23% to 32%, and the neurologically intact survival rate among all patients has doubled, from 10.4% to 21.2%.
Based on these results, Advanced Resuscitation Training has been selected as a Joint Commission Best Practice. The Joint Commission represents a global collection of healthcare stakeholders who are dedicated to improving public health through a set of standards designed to measure, assess, and improve patient safety. By passing the Joint Commission’s objective analysis, ART—and ZOLL technology—have been proven essential to proving safe and high-quality care.
ZOLL is taking the guesswork out of CPR, and patients are benefitting.
Figure 2. Survival to discharge after cardiac arrest at UCSD
1Bobrow BJ, et al. Ann Emerg Med. 2013 Jul;62(1):47–56.e1. Epub 2013 Mar 7.
2Davis, DP. A New Algorithm for CPR Training. Medcom Trainex CEU program. 2012.
