• Karol Kremens, Andrew Seevaratnam, Jonathan Fine, Dorothy B Wakefield, and Lewis Berman.
• University of Iowa, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine, University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinic, Iowa City, IA 52242, USA. Karol-kremens@uiowa.edu
• Conn Med. 2011 Apr 1;75(4):203-6.

RationaleWe hypothesize that despite excellent evidence supporting use of therapeutic hypothermia (TH) after cardiac arrest, only some of Connecticut hospitals utilize this technique for cardiac arrest patients.MethodsTelephone survey of all adult acute care Connecticut hospitals between January and April 2010.ResultsAmong 31 adult acute care hospitals, 27 care for cardiac arrest patients. Seventeen out of 27 hospitals use TH (63%) for cardiac arrest patients. No significant association was found between use of TH and hospital size (P=0.14), ICU type (P=0.07) or BC/BE critical-care physician staffing (P= 0.22). Lack of resources and cost of TH were commonly mentioned as barriers.ConclusionsTherapeutic hypothermia is underutilized in Connecticut with almost half of all hospitals currently not employing TH. Given the slow adoption rate of TH, state-level leadership may be indicated to accelerate implementation of this life-saving technique.

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