TY - JOUR
T1 - First-response treatment after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
T2 - A survey of current practices across 29 countries in Europe
AU - Oving, Iris
AU - Masterson, Siobhan
AU - Tjelmeland, Ingvild B.M.
AU - Jonsson, Martin
AU - Semeraro, Federico
AU - Ringh, Mattias
AU - Truhlar, Anatolij
AU - Cimpoesu, Diana
AU - Folke, Fredrik
AU - Beesems, Stefanie G.
AU - Koster, Rudolph W.
AU - Tan, Hanno L.
AU - Blom, Marieke T.
N1 - Funding Information: This project/work has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under acronym ESCAPE-NET, registered under grant agreement No 733381. Dr Tan and Dr Blom were supported by Dutch Heart Foundation (CVON 2018-30 Predict2). Funding Information: Supported by Emilia Romagna Healthcare Region Funding and Fondazione del Monte di Bologna e Ravenna for development. Publisher Copyright: © 2019 The Author(s).
PY - 2019/12/16
Y1 - 2019/12/16
N2 - Background: In Europe, survival rates after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) vary widely. Presence/absence and differences in implementation of systems dispatching First Responders (FR) in order to arrive before Emergency Medical Services (EMS) may contribute to this variation. A comprehensive overview of the different types of FR-systems used across Europe is lacking. Methods: A mixed-method survey and information retrieved from national resuscitation councils and national EMS services were used as a basis for an inventory. The survey was sent to 51 OHCA experts across 29 European countries. Results: Forty-seven (92%) OHCA experts from 29 countries responded to the survey. More than half of European countries had at least one region with a FR-system. Four categories of FR types were identified: (1) firefighters (professional/voluntary); (2) police officers; (3) citizen-responders; (4) others including off-duty EMS personnel (nurses, medical doctors), taxi drivers. Three main roles for FRs were identified: (a) complementary to EMS; (b) part of EMS; (c) instead of EMS. A wide variation in FR-systems was observed, both between and within countries. Conclusions: Policies relating to FRs are commonly implemented on a regional level, leading to a wide variation in FR-systems between and within countries. Future research should focus on identifying the FR-systems that most strongly influence survival. The large variation in local circumstances across regions suggests that it is unlikely that there will be a 'one-size fits all' FR-system for Europe, but examining the role of FRs in the Chain of Survival is likely to become an increasingly important aspect of OHCA research.
AB - Background: In Europe, survival rates after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) vary widely. Presence/absence and differences in implementation of systems dispatching First Responders (FR) in order to arrive before Emergency Medical Services (EMS) may contribute to this variation. A comprehensive overview of the different types of FR-systems used across Europe is lacking. Methods: A mixed-method survey and information retrieved from national resuscitation councils and national EMS services were used as a basis for an inventory. The survey was sent to 51 OHCA experts across 29 European countries. Results: Forty-seven (92%) OHCA experts from 29 countries responded to the survey. More than half of European countries had at least one region with a FR-system. Four categories of FR types were identified: (1) firefighters (professional/voluntary); (2) police officers; (3) citizen-responders; (4) others including off-duty EMS personnel (nurses, medical doctors), taxi drivers. Three main roles for FRs were identified: (a) complementary to EMS; (b) part of EMS; (c) instead of EMS. A wide variation in FR-systems was observed, both between and within countries. Conclusions: Policies relating to FRs are commonly implemented on a regional level, leading to a wide variation in FR-systems between and within countries. Future research should focus on identifying the FR-systems that most strongly influence survival. The large variation in local circumstances across regions suggests that it is unlikely that there will be a 'one-size fits all' FR-system for Europe, but examining the role of FRs in the Chain of Survival is likely to become an increasingly important aspect of OHCA research.
KW - Cardiopulmonary resuscitation
KW - ESCAPE-NET
KW - Europe
KW - First responders
KW - Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85076682883&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - https://www.scopus.com/inward/record.uri?partnerID=HzOxMe3b&scp=85076682883&origin=inward
UR - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/31842928
U2 - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-019-0689-0
DO - https://doi.org/10.1186/s13049-019-0689-0
M3 - Article
C2 - 31842928
SN - 1757-7241
VL - 27
JO - Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine
JF - Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine
IS - 1
M1 - 112
ER -