Patients who have suffered out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) are often among the sickest patients we take care of in the Emergency Department setting. Current medical literature suggests that survival and ultimate neurological outcome for OHCA patients is dependent on the therapies that are available and provided for this specialized subset of patients once they arrive at the hospital. Specifically, the availability of emergent cardiac catheterization and therapeutic hypothermia has been demonstrated to improve outcomes for these patients. Identifying which facilities have these capabilities is a challenge for Emergency Medical Services providers and medical directors in our region. Several regional or statewide EMS systems in the United States are currently working toward identifying these facilities, similar to identifying the most appropriate facility for patients with trauma, stroke or ST-elevation MI.
EMSI has developed a self-reporting system for hospital Emergency Department directors to report whether their facility offers such services to EMS. A short survey was sent to each hospital, completed, and sent back. Here are the results of phase 1 of this project.
EMSI is expanding the list of services that each hospital can provide the EMS patient. This will be a self-reporting survey done in the same manner. Those services will be made available as soon as the data is collected. It is our hope that EMS can make better decisions where to transport patients that have specific illnesses or injuries by using this data.
Click Here to access Hospital Services Chart