When a cardiac arrest occurs outside the hospital, bystanders need to perform effective CPR as soon as possible, but that doesn’t always happen. A new study looks at whether providing CPR with the help of trained 911 dispatchers on the phone, would improve survival rates.
Researchers from the Arizona Department of Health Services provided additional training to dispatchers in two regional centers in the Phoenix area on how to be more assertive and confident while on the phone with rescuers. They measured outcomes from more than 2,300 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during a three year period. The researchers found that the proportion of patients who survived rose by about a third, and there was a 43 percent increase in the number of patients who went home from the hospital in good shape.
