Improvements in the quality of advanced life support and patient outcome after implementation of a standardized real-life post-resuscitation feedback system

Abstract

BackgroundEducational aspects in the training of advanced life support (ALS) represent a key role in critical care management of patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) and received special attention in guidelines of various international societies. While a positive association of feedback on ALS performance in training conditions is well established, data on the impact of a real-life post-resuscitation feedback on both ALS quality and outcome remain scarce and inconclusive. We aimed to elucidate the impact of a standardized post-resuscitation feedback on quality of ALS and improvements in patient outcome, in a real-life out-of-hospital setting. MethodsWe prospectively enrolled and analyzed 2209 patients presenting with OHCA receiving resuscitation attempts by the municipal emergency medical service (EMS) of Vienna over a two-year period. A standardized post-resuscitation feedback protocol was delivered to the respective EMS-team to elucidate its impact on the quality of ALS. ResultsWe observed that both chest compression rates and ratios were in accordance to recommendations of recent guidelines. While interruptions of chest compressions longer than 30s declined during the observation period (−6.5%) rates of the recommended chest compressions during defibrillator-charging periods increased (+8.9%). Since the percentage of ROSC and 30-day survival remained balanced, the frequencies of both survival until hospital discharge (+6.3%) and favorable neurological outcome (+16%) in survivors significantly increased during the observation period. ConclusionImprovements in the quality of advanced life support as well the patient outcome were observed after the implementation of a standardized post-resuscitation feedback protocol.