Restarting the Engine: Cardiac Arrest Outcomes in the Hospital

Although patients who experience out-of-hospital cardiac arrests are more likely to survive now than they were 2 decades ago, limited data on in-hospital cardiac arrests had not shown improved outcomes as of 2005 (JW Gen Med Jul 1 2009). Using the Get with the Guidelines — Resuscitation registry, which prospectively tracks in-hospital cardiac arrests (excluding patients with do-not-resuscitate orders) in participating hospitals in the U.S., researchers evaluated outcomes among 84,625 hospitalized adult patients with cardiac arrest (on general wards or intensive care units) at 374 hospitals.

From 2000 to 2009, adjusted survival to hospital discharge significantly increased from 14% to 22%. This outcome improvement occurred despite a significa…