Whatcom County Faces Challenges Despite Improvements Resulting from a Bundle of Care Approach to OHCA

Whatcom County, Washington, is the furthermost northwest county in the continental United States. The county covers over 2,200 square miles and has a population of approximately 250,000 people, of which 150,000 are within the city of Bellingham. Whatcom County is the state’s 12th largest county, part of which is only accessible by land through Canada. Whatcom County’s ALS program began in 1974. Over the years, the manner in which care has been delivered has steadily improved. In 1996, all BLS response units were equipped with an AED and a strong community effort to provide CPR training was initiated. Then, in 2006, a BLS transport system was created comprising of 49 potential response units divided along fire district/city lines. Today, all BLS providers are AED-equipped and trained in high-performance CPR. Prior to 2006, we estimated the return of spontaneous circulation rate was 16%. We subsequently participated in the ResQTrial, a study of active compression-decompression (ACD) CPR with the use of an impedance threshold device (ITD-16). During this time, our overall survival to hospital discharge rate with favorable neurological function was > 12%. Currently we deploy ACD+ITD-16 CPR as well as LUCAS devices, which are used during transport. Data is now collected for each ALS agency and from our one receiving hospital. This data is then put into the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES). We’re also moving toward an effective electronic health record ...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Cardiac & Resuscitation Top Story Exclusive Articles Patient Care Heart of America Source Type: news