Dispatcher assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation implementation in Kuwait: A before and after study examining the impact on outcomes of out of hospital cardiac arrest victims.

Dispatcher assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation (DACPR) by Emergency medical services has been shown to improve rates of early out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) recognition and early cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for OHCA. This study measures the impact of introducing DACPR on OHCA recognition, CPR rates and on patient outcomes in a pilot region in Kuwait.EMS treated OHCA data over 10 months period (February 21-December 31, 2017) before and after the intervention was prospectively collected and analyzed.Comprehensive DACPR in the form of: a standardized dispatch protocol, 1-day training package and quality assurance and improvement measures were applied to Kuwait EMS central Dispatch unit only for pilot region. Primary outcomes: OHCA recognition rate, CPR instruction rate, and Bystander CPR rate. Secondary outcome: survival to hospital discharge.A total of 332 OHCA cases from the EMS archived data were extracted and after exclusion 176 total OHCA cases remain. After DACPR implementation OHCA recognition rate increased from 2% to 12.9% (P = .037), CPR instruction rate increased from 0% to 10.4% (P = .022); however, no significant change was noted for bystander CPR rates or prehospital return of spontaneous circulation. Also, survival to hospital discharge rate did not change significantly (0% before, and 0.8% after, P = .53)In summary, DACPR implementation had positive impacts on Kuwait EMS system operational outcomes; early OHCA recognition and CPR instruction rates in a pilot region of Kuwait. Expanding this initiative to other regions in Kuwait and coupling it with other OHCA system of care interventions are needed to improve OHCA survival rates.

A centralized system for providing dispatcher assisted CPR instructions to 9-1-1 callers at multiple municipal public safety answering points.

BACKGROUND: Dispatcher CPR instruction increases the odds of survival. However, many communities do not provide this lifesaving intervention, often citing the barriers of limited personnel, funding, and liability. OBJECTIVE: Describe the implementation of a novel centralized dispatcher CPR instruction program that serves seven public safety answering points (PSAPs). METHODS: Seven municipal PSAPs that did not previously provide dispatcher instructions implemented our program. Using a 30-min self-directed video, 84 PSAP dispatchers were trained to utilize a two-question protocol to identify and transfer suspected out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) cases to a central communication center. At this central communication center, a trained communicator delivered CPR instructions to the caller. The 26 central communicators were trained with a 2-h in-person didactic session followed by a 2-h practice session. We collected and analyzed data from recordings of communicator-to-caller interactions. RESULTS: 169 calls were transferred to the central communication center. Of those, 106 needed CPR instructions and 56 of those callers performed chest compressions (53%). The county-wide EMS documented bystander CPR rate was 20% the prior year. The 63 remaining transferred calls were non-OHCA calls. Of the calls where CPR was needed and performed, 11 victims survived to hospital discharge (20%); the countywide survival rate was 12%. CONCLUSIONS: Using a central communication center for instructions allowed us to train and maintain a smaller group of communicators, leading to less cost and more experience for those communicators, while limiting the burden on PSAP dispatchers.

The impact of resuscitation guideline terminology on quality of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation: A randomised controlled manikin study.

BACKGROUND: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) guidelines vary in the terminology used to describe target chest compression depth, which may impact CPR quality. We investigated the impact of using different chest compression depth instruction terminologies on CPR quality. METHODS: We conducted a parallel group, three-arm, randomised controlled manikin trial in which individuals without recent CPR training were instructed to deliver compression-only CPR for 2-min based on a standardised dispatcher-assisted CPR script. Participants were randomised in a 1:1:1 ratio to receive CPR delivery instructions that instructed them to deliver chest compressions based on the following terminologies: 'press at least 5 cm', 'press approximately 5 cm' or 'press hard and fast.' The primary outcome was compression depth, measured in millimetres. RESULTS: Between October 2017 and June 2018, 330 participants were randomised to 'at least 5 cm' (n = 109), 'approximately 5 cm' (n = 110) and 'hard and fast' (n = 111), in which mean chest compression depth was 40.9 mm (SD 13.8), 35.4 mm (SD 14.1), and 46.8 mm (SD 15.0) respectively. Mean difference in chest compression depth between 'at least 5 cm' and 'approximately 5 cm' was 5.45 (95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.78-10.12), between 'hard and fast' and 'approximately 5 cm' was 11.32 (95% CI 6.65-15.99), and between 'hard and fast' and 'at least 5 cm' was 5.87 (95% CI 1.21-10.53). Chest compression rate and count were both highest in the 'hard and fast' group. CONCLUSIONS: The use of 'hard and fast' terminology was superior to both 'at least 5 cm' and 'approximately 5 cm' terminologies. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN15128211.

Patterns of Signs That Telephone Crisis Support Workers Associate with Suicide Risk in Telephone Crisis Line Callers.

Signs of suicide are commonly used in suicide intervention training to assist the identification of those at imminent risk for suicide. Signs of suicide may be particularly important to telephone crisis-line workers (TCWs), who have little background information to identify the presence of suicidality if the caller is unable or unwilling to express suicidal intent. Although signs of suicide are argued to be only meaningful as a pattern, there is a paucity of research that has examined whether TCWs use patterns of signs to decide whether a caller might be suicidal, and whether these are influenced by caller characteristics such as gender. The current study explored both possibilities. Data were collected using an online self-report survey in a Australian sample of 137 TCWs. Exploratory factor analysis uncovered three patterns of suicide signs that TCWs may use to identify if a caller might be at risk for suicide (mood, hopelessness, and anger), which were qualitatively different for male and female callers. These findings suggest that TCWs may recognise specific patterns of signs to identify suicide risk, which appear to be influenced to some extent by the callers' inferred gender. Implications for the training of telephone crisis workers and others including mental-health and medical professionals, as well as and future research in suicide prevention are discussed.

Simulation training to improve 9-1-1 dispatcher identification of cardiac arrest: A randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: The objective of this study was to test the effectiveness of simulation training, using actors to make mock calls, on improving Emergency Medical Dispatchers' (EMDs) ability to recognize the need for, and reduce the time to, telephone-assisted CPR (T-CPR) in simulated and real cardiac arrest 9-1-1 calls. METHODS: We conducted a parallel prospective randomized controlled trial with n=157 EMDs from thirteen 9-1-1 call centers. Study participants were randomized within each center to intervention (i.e., completing 4 simulation training sessions over 12-months) or control (status quo). After the intervention period, performance on 9 call processing skills and 2 time-intervals were measured in 2 simulation assessment calls for both arms. Six of the 13 call centers provided recordings of real cardiac arrest calls taken by study participants during the study period. RESULTS: Of the N=128 EMDs who completed the simulation assessment, intervention participants (n=66) performed significantly better on 6 of 9 call processing skills and started T-CPR 23s faster (73 vs 91s respectively, p<0.001) compared to participants in the control arm (n=62). In real cardiac arrest calls, EMDs who completed 3 or 4 training sessions were more likely to recognize the need for T-CPR for more challenging cardiac arrest calls than EMDs who completed fewer than 3, including controls who completed no training (68% vs 53%, p=0.018). CONCLUSIONS: Simulation training improves call processing skills and reduces time to T-CPR in simulated call scenarios, and may improve the recognition of the need for T-CPR in more challenging real-life cardiac arrest calls. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov Trial # NCT01972087.