Abstract
BackgroundIn countries where a single public emergency telephone number is not in operation, different emergency telephone numbers corresponding to multiple dispatch centres (police, fire, emergency medical service) may create confusion for the population about the most appropriate service to call. In particular, out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) requires a prompt and effective response. We compare two different dispatch systems on OHCA patient survival at 30 days in a national system with multiple emergency telephone numbers.MethodsWe conducted an observational retrospective study of 6871 patients aged 18 years or older with presumed OHCA of cardiac origin between 2005 and 2013 in three counties of the Northern French Alps region. One county had a single dispatch centre combining medical and fire emergencies, and two had multiple dispatch centres. Propensity score matching analyses were performed to compare patient survival at 30 days.ResultsA total of 2257 emergency calls for OHCA were managed by a single dispatch centre and 4614 by a multiple dispatch centre. A single dispatch centre was associated with an increase in survival (adjusted odds ratio [OR] for all patients: 1.7; 95 % confidence interval [CI] = 1.3–2.2; p <0.001; adjusted OR for propensity-matched patients: 2.0; 95 % CI = 1.2–3.4; p = 0.012).ConclusionsA single dispatch centre was associated with a markedly improved increase of survival among OHCA patients at 30 days in a system with several emergency telephone numbers.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s13049-016-0247-y) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.
Highlights
In countries where a single public emergency telephone number is not in operation, different emergency telephone numbers corresponding to multiple dispatch centres may create confusion for the population about the most appropriate service to call
We hypothesized that patient survival following of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) may differ depending on the emergency dispatch system in use
Between 1 January 2005 and 31 December 2013, 16,423 OHCA cases considered for resuscitation were recorded
Summary
In countries where a single public emergency telephone number is not in operation, different emergency telephone numbers corresponding to multiple dispatch centres (police, fire, emergency medical service) may create confusion for the population about the most appropriate service to call. We compare two different dispatch systems on OHCA patient survival at 30 days in a national system with multiple emergency telephone numbers. Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is a leading cause of death worldwide [1]. Successful resuscitation of these patients requires a coordinated set of rescuer actions termed the “chain of survival” [2]. We hypothesized that patient survival following OHCA may differ depending on the emergency dispatch system in use
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