Resuscitation
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Cardiac arrest is the leading cause of death among patients receiving hemodialysis. Despite guidelines recommending CPR training and AED presence in dialysis clinics, rates of CPR and AED use by dialysis staff are suboptimal. Given that racial disparities exist in bystander CPR administration in non-healthcare settings, we examined the relationship between patient race/ethnicity and staff-initiated CPR and AED application within dialysis clinics. ⋯ Black and Asian patients are significantly less likely than white patients to receive CPR from dialysis staff. Further understanding of practices in dialysis clinics and increased awareness of this disparity are necessary to improve resuscitation practices.
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Review
Acute clinical deterioration and consumer escalation in the hospital setting: A literature review.
Consumer escalation systems that allow patients and/or their family/carers to escalate concerns about clinical deterioration have been proposed as a way of enhancing patient safety. However, evidence to guide implementation or to support system effectiveness remains unclear. ⋯ The ability of consumer escalation processes to achieve their underlying goals is still to be adequately assessed. Further research is required to inform how to best implement, support and optimise consumer escalation systems.
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This 2020 International Consensus on Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) and Emergency Cardiovascular Care Science With Treatment Recommendations on basic life support summarizes evidence evaluations performed for 20 topics that were prioritized by the Basic Life Support Task Force of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation. The evidence reviews include 16 systematic reviews, 3 scoping reviews, and 1 evidence update. ⋯ The topics that resulted in the most extensive task force discussions included CPR during transport, CPR before calling for help, resuscitation care for suspected opioid-associated emergencies, feedback for CPR quality, and analysis of rhythm during chest compressions. After discussion of the scoping reviews and the evidence update, the task force prioritized several topics for new systematic reviews.
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The defibrillator prompt, which directs callers to retrieve a defibrillator during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, is crucial to the emergency call because it can save lives. We evaluated communicative effectiveness of the prompt instated by the Medical Priority Dispatch System™ Version 13, namely: if there is a defibrillator (AED) available, send someone to get it now, and tell me when you have it. ⋯ While the Version 13 prompt aims to ensure the use of an available automatic external defibrillator, its effectiveness is undermined by the three-clause composition of the prompt and exclusion of a question structure. We recommend testing of a re-phrased defibrillator prompt in order to maximise comprehension and caller action.