The HeartRescue Project was sponsored by the Medtronic Philanthropy, and is an effort to partner with states and organizations to build a comprehensive registry of resuscitation that can be used to focus efforts to improve survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The mantra of HeartRescue is to “measure and improve.” The original participants include Arizona, Minnesota, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Washington. The project expanded to involve others on a statewide basis to include Alaska, Hawaii, Illinois, Oregon, Michigan, Maryland, Montana, Vermont, California, Texas, and American Medical Response.
HeartRescue uses the CARES data registry to achieve consistent measurement. Community-based improvement efforts have derived from a variety of platforms; HeartRescue Partners have developed a Resuscitation Academy resource (www.resuscitationacademy.org) as a primary tool to engage resuscitation stakeholders and provide expertise and training directed toward community-based improvement.
There is a high level of “case capture” with some states exceeding 90% agency participation and population coverage. Overall, more than 100 million population is covered by the umbrella. The results indicate that long-term survival can increase when communities improve evidence-based resuscitation care, but that the effort takes programmatic persistence and coordinated effort.
We are grateful for the progress to date but look forward with ambitious goals: HeartRescue will integrate with the Resuscitation Academy Foundation to build on the foundation of people, programs, and communities from the past decade to continue to advance resuscitation quality improvement. We will continue to develop, refine, and expand tools and know-how for systems to implement programs designed to improve efforts on a local level. The goal is to engage the full spectrum of communities in a way that can provide access and opportunity for all who are interested. Although the science is global, implementation is local. We look forward to working together.
We invite you to participate in the initiative. If you have interest or questions, please contact tegan [at] resuscitationacademy.org.
SOURCE: Heart Rescue Project