• Taichiro Tsunoyama, Shinji Nakahara, Masafumi Yoshida, Maki Kitamura, and Tetsuya Sakamoto.
• Department of Emergency Medicine Teikyo University School of Medicine Tokyo Japan.
• Acute Med Surg. 2017 Oct 1; 4 (4): 439-445.

AimThe Japanese government has developed a standardized training program for emergency call dispatchers to improve their skills in providing oral guidance on chest compression to bystanders who have witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (OHCAs). This study evaluated the effects of such a training program for emergency call dispatchers in Japan.MethodsThe analysis included all consecutive non-traumatic OHCA patients transported to hospital by eight emergency medical services, where the program was implemented as a pilot project. We compared the provision of oral guidance and the incidence of chest compression applications by bystanders in the 1-month period before and after the program. Data collection was undertaken from October 2014 to March 2015.ResultsThe 532 non-traumatic OHCA cases were used for analysis: these included 249 cases before and 283 after the guidance intervention. Most patients were over 75 years old and were men. After the program, provision of oral guidance to callers slightly increased from 63% of cases to 69% (P = 0.13) and implementation of chest compression on patients by bystanders significantly increased from 40% to 52% (P = 0.01). Appropriate chest compression also increased from 34% to 47% (P = 0.01). In analysis stratified by the provision of oral guidance, increased chest compressions were observed only under oral guidance.ConclusionsWe found increased provision of oral guidance by dispatchers and increased appropriate chest compressions by bystanders after the training program for dispatchers had been rolled out. Long-term observation and further data analysis, including patient outcomes, are needed.

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