The impact of cardiopulmonary emergency response reorganization on patient survival in a rural hospital

Survival of in-house cardiac arrest poses a significant danger to inpatients. Unorganized resuscitation response to cardiopulmonary emergencies can delay treatment interventions such as defibrillation. This study investigated the impact of reorganization of a resuscitation team on survival of patients in ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation before and after a change in cardiopulmonary emergency response policy (CERP). Data were collected retrospectively by reviewing medical records of patients two years prior to the change in CERP (2009-2010) and two years after (2011-2012). Data for five research questions were analyzed using a Fisher’s exact test. There were eight patients (Emergency Department=2, Inpatient=6) that met sample criteria between 2009-2010: two inpatients expired at discharge. There were 11 patients (Emergency Department =7, Inpatient=4) that met sample criteria between 2011-2012; one Emergency Department patient expired at the end of the cardiopulmonary emergency and one Emergency Department patient expired at discharge. There was no statistical significance found (p=1 and p=.47). Improvements to the study design are warranted to determine the impact of changes in the CERP on patient outcomes. Earlier recognition of arrhythmias by telemetry monitoring and, consequently, earlier interventions may help explain higher survival rates at the end of a cardiopulmonary emergency (93.7%) and at discharge (86.6%). Improvements in charting may indicate that pre-assignment of the recorder role and additional education improves documentation accuracy.