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A recent analysis of data from the National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation revealed that time to defibrillation exceeded 2 minutes in 30% of inpatient cardiac arrests (JW Emerg Med Jan 2 2008). Seeking to understand the causes of these delays, the same researchers assessed hospital and patient characteristics associated with better performance in 7479 inpatients at 200 hospitals.
Overall, 71% of arrests occurred outside normal working hours (8 am to 5 pm weekdays). Adjusted rates of delayed defibrillation (>2 minutes) ranged from 2.4% to 50.9%. Only two hospital characteristics were significantly associated with better performance: bed volume >200 (odds ratio, 0.62) and location of arrest in an intensive care unit (OR, 0.52 compar…