• Resuscitation · Nov 2022

    ARE FIRST RESPONDERS FIRST? THE RALLY TO THE SUSPECTED OUT-OF-HOSPITAL CARDIAC ARREST.

    • E Berglund, F Byrsell, S Forsberg, A Nord, and M Jonsson.
    • Department of Clinical Science and Education, Södersjukhuset, Centre for Resuscitation Science, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden. Electronic address: ellinor.berglund@ki.se.
    • Resuscitation. 2022 Nov 1; 180: 707770-77.

    BackgroundTime is the crucial factor in the "chain of survival" treatment concept for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). We aimed to measure different response time intervals by comparing emergency medical system (EMS), fire fighters and smartphone aided volunteer responders.MethodsIn two large Swedish regions, volunteer responders were timed from the alert until they arrived at the scene of the suspected OHCA. The first arriving volunteer responders who tried to fetch an automated external defibrillator (AED-responder) and who ran to perform bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR-responder) were compared to both the first arriving EMS and fire fighters. Three-time intervals were measured, from call to dispatch, the unit response time (from dispatch to arrival) and the total response time.ResultsDuring 22 months, 2631 suspected OHCAs were included. The median time from call to dispatch was in minutes 1.8 (95% CI = 1.7-1.8) for EMS, 2.9 (95% CI = 2.8-3.0) for fire-fighters and 3.0 (95% CI = 2.9-3.1) for volunteer responders. The median unit response time was 8.3 (95% CI = 8.1-8.5) for EMS, 6.8 (95% CI = 6.7-6.9) for fire fighters and 6.0 (95% CI = 5.7-6.2) for AED-responders and 4.6 (95% CI = 4.5-4.8) for CPR-responders. The total response time was 10.4 (95% CI = 10.1-10.6) for EMS, 10.2 (95% CI = 9.9-10.4) for fire fighters, 9.6 (95% CI = 9.1-9.8) for AED-responders and 8.2 (95% CI = 8.0-8.3) for CPR-responders.ConclusionFirst arriving volunteer responders had the shortest unit response time when compared to both fire fighters and EMS, however this advantage was reduced by delays introduced at the dispatch center. Earlier automatic dispatch should be considered in further studies.Copyright © 2022 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

      Pubmed     Free full text   Copy Citation     Plaintext  

      Add institutional full text...

    Notes

     
    Knowledge, pearl, summary or comment to share?
    300 characters remaining
    help        
    You can also include formatting, links, images and footnotes in your notes
    • Simple formatting can be added to notes, such as *italics*, _underline_ or **bold**.
    • Superscript can be denoted by <sup>text</sup> and subscript <sub>text</sub>.
    • Numbered or bulleted lists can be created using either numbered lines 1. 2. 3., hyphens - or asterisks *.
    • Links can be included with: [my link to pubmed](http://pubmed.com)
    • Images can be included with: ![alt text](https://bestmedicaljournal.com/study_graph.jpg "Image Title Text")
    • For footnotes use [^1](This is a footnote.) inline.
    • Or use an inline reference [^1] to refer to a longer footnote elseweher in the document [^1]: This is a long footnote..

    hide…