Journal Article

Out of hospital Cardio-pulmonary arrest - Is there a role for the primary healthcare teams?

Vinker, Shlomo

2017

Overview

Out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality. The survival rates are poor and even more frustrating are the rates of neurologically favorable outcomes at hospital discharge. In a recent IJHPR article, Einav et al. concluded that many primary care clinics are underequipped and the physicians underprepared to initiate life-saving services. The chance of having an OHCA in a primary care clinic is very low. But although the impact is small, primary care teams as well as other out-of-hospital healthcare personal should be familiar with the telephone number for summoning emergency medical services (EMS), be aware of the location of the defibrillator in their clinic, and know how to use it. The literature about effective ways to keep long-standing competencies in cardiopulmonary resuscitation among medical personnel outside the hospital is scarce. It is very difficult to evaluate the actual effectiveness of interventions on better outcome; the events are rare and unique in their nature and it hard to generalize the conclusions. The “chain of survival” concept involves a series of steps that should be taken at the scene in the community: early recognition of symptoms and activation of an emergency response system; early bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation; rapid defibrillation, if needed; early advanced cardiac life support and integrated post-resuscitation care. In this “chain” there is an important role for healthcare personal in the community via improving their own skills and performance and via a deeper involvement in the education of the public. We should take all the needed steps so that community clinic personnel can be role models for effective and successful out of hospital cardiac resuscitation (OHCR).

• Publisher: BioMed Central,BioMed Central Ltd,Springer Nature B.V,BMC
• Subject: Ambulatory Care Facilities - organization & administration / Ambulatory Care Facilities - standards / Analysis / Cardiopulmonary Arrest / Cardiopulmonary resuscitation / Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - education / Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation - statistics & numerical data / Chains / Clinics / Commentary / Communities / CPR / Defibrillators / Delivery of Health Care / Emergency communications systems / Emergency medical services / Emergency preparedness / Emergency response / Health Administration / Health aspects / Health care / Health care reform / Health facilities / Health Policy / Health Promotion and Disease Prevention / Health services / Health Services Research / Heart / Heart diseases / Hospitals / Humans / Management / Medical care / Medical personnel / Medicine / Medicine & Public Health / Morbidity / Multivariate analysis / Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest - mortality / Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest - therapy / Patient Care Team - utilization / Physicians / Practice / Primary Care / Primary Health Care / Primary Health Care - methods / Primary Health Care - standards / Public Health / Quality of care in Israel and beyond / Quality of Health Care / Resuscitation / Surveys and Questionnaires / Survival / Survival Analysis / Teams