Do victims of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest benefit from a training program for emergency medical dispatchers?
In this paper, we assessed the effects of a training course for emergency medical dispatchers on the handling of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases in the dispatch center of a two-tiered emergency medical services system. A total of 112 cardiac arrest cases were studied; 64 before and 48 after the training course. Before the course, all relevant information was obtained in 36% of cases, only partial information in 56% and no useful medical information in 8%. The corresponding figures after the training program were 62, 38 and 0%, respectively (2 x 3 chi2 test, P = 0.01). Trends towards an increase in the percentage of cases in which a second-tier team was sent immediately after the initial call (58 vs 75%; chi2 test, P = 0.06) and towards shorter overall intervals between receipt of the call and dispatch of the second-tier team (logrank test, P = 0.10) were noticed. Similarly, the survival rate increased from 2% before, to 8% after the training course (chi2 test with Yates' correction, P = 0.24). We conclude that our training program for emergency medical dispatchers produced some beneficial effects.
Calle
P A
PA
University Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine, Gent, Belgium.
Lagaert
L
L
Vanhaute
O
O
Buylaert
W A
WA
D001049:Apnea / Q000628:therapy; D001530:Belgium; D016009:Chi-Square Distribution; D003142:Communication; D004632:Emergency Medical Services; D004634:Emergency Medical Technicians / Q000193:education*; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008020:Life Support Care; D011446:Prospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D013997:Time Factors