Abstract 293: Swedish Emergency Medical Dispatch Centres Ability To Answer And Manage Out Of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Calls In Accordance With The American Heart Association Performance Goals

Abstract

Background: In witnessed OHCA each minute of delay to CPR reduce the probability of survival. Thus, Emergency Medical Dispatch Centres (EMDC) ability to rapidly answer the emergency call and dispatch EMS is crucial. The American Heart Association (AHA) states that the goal of public safety answering points in a high performing system is to answer OHCA calls within 10 seconds (s) and dispatch the first EMS unit within 60 s. Aim: The aim of the study was to 1) describe the EMDC call answer delay and 2) time to dispatch of the first EMS unit in OHCA calls in the region of Stockholm, during 10 years in accordance with the AHA goals for OHCA call handling. We also aimed to 3) investigate the effect of “late responders” on 30-day survival. Method: This is an observational study based on OHCA data from the region of Stockholm, Sweden, between year 2012 to 2021. Data was collected from the Swedish Registry for Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (SRCR) and SOS Alarm AB database. Results: During the 10-year period, the EMDC answered a total of 12 298 calls with a corresponding OHCA-record in the SRCR. Complete data was available in 11 484 calls (93%) which were included in the analysis. Of these, 62% (n=7127) of OHCA calls were answered within 10 s, 20% (n=2306) in 10-20 s and 18% (n=2051) above 20 s. The median delay was 7.3 s [IQR 3.3, 15.1]. Dispatch of the first EMS unit was performed within 60 s in 9% (1053 of 11470), 23% (2640 of 11470) between 60-90 s and 68% (7777 of 11470) above 90 s, with a median delay of 114.5 s [IQR 81.4, 168.6]. Differences in call answer delay and time to dispatch of the first EMS unit over the 10-years are presented in Figure 1. Survival at 30-days was 11% (109 of 990) when EMS was dispatched within 60 s, 8.7% (215 of 2459) in 60-90 s and 10.3% (746 of 7210) above 90 s. Conclusion: In the region Stockholm the majority of emergency calls concerning OHCA were answered within the high performance system goal of 10 seconds. Additional effort is needed to achieve the 60 second goal for dispatch of the first EMS unit.