Telephone CPR Program Improves Survival from Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Telephone guidance has been shown to improve bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which, in turn, has been shown to improve survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). As part of a statewide quality-improvement effort for OHCA, Arizona health officials implemented a bundle of care that included guideline-based telephone CPR training for 911 call takers.

In a prospective, observational, before-and-after study, these authors linked data from 911 call centers and receiving hospitals for two regional emergency medical services dispatch centers covering nearly two thirds of Arizona's population. The authors examined matched 911 recordings and hospital records for roughly 800 adult patients with OHCA who received care before imp…