Cardiac Arrest Survival Rates Triple For Ariz. FD
STAFF EXPLORER NEWSPAPER
THE EXPLORER (TUCSON, ARIZONA)
CREATED: DECEMBER 11, 2012
Survival rates have more than tripled for cardiac arrest patients in the Northwest Fire District (NWFD) as a result of a new treatment protocol and a close partnership with the University of Arizona Medical Center.
(see article at http://www.firehouse.com/news/10840863/cardiac-arrest-survival-rates-tr…)
Essentially, the overall survival rate has gone from 4.9% to 14.6% for all arrests and from 11.1% to 37.5% for witnessed arrests.
This builds on the MICR work Bobrow et al. published in JAMA in March 2008.
http://jama.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=181606
The enabler was a focus on the issues, minimization of interruptions, and postponing or eliminating intubation. The JAMA article announced a similar percentage gain: "Among the 886 patients in the 2 metropolitan cities, survival-to-hospital discharge increased from 1.8% (4/218) before MICR training to 5.4% (36/668) after MICR training (odds ratio [OR], 3.0; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.1-8.9). In the subgroup of 174 patients with witnessed cardiac arrest and ventricular fibrillation, survival increased from 4.7% (2/43) before MICR training to 17.6% (23/131) after MICR training (OR, 8.6; 95% CI, 1.8-42.0)." That's more than a three-fold improvement in just shy of three years.
The more than three-fold improvement just reported was reached within 8 months of the implementation of MICR principles.
Has your local EMS implemented MICR?
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