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Background: Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is associated with higher survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, but whether its association with survival differs by patients' sex and race and ethnicity is less clear., Methods: Within a large US registry, we identified 623 342 nontraumatic out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during 2013 to 2022 for this observational cohort study. Using hierarchical logistic regression, we examined whether there was a differential association between bystander CPR and survival outcomes by patients' sex and race and ethnicity, overall and by neighborhood strata., Results: Mean age was 62.1±17.1 years, and 35.9% were women. Nearly half of patients (49.8%) were non-Hispanic White; 20.6% were non-Hispanic Black; 7.3% were Hispanic; 2.9% were Asian; and 0.4% were Native American. Overall, 58 098 (9.3%) survived to hospital discharge. Although bystander CPR was associated with higher survival in each race and ethnicity group, the association of bystander CPR compared with patients without bystander CPR in each racial and ethnic group was highest in individuals who were White (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 1.33 [95% CI, 1.30-1.37]) and Native American (adjusted OR, 1.40 [95% CI, 1.02-1.90]) and lowest in individuals who were Black (adjusted OR, 1.09 [95% CI, 1.04-1.14]; P interaction <0.001). The adjusted OR for bystander CPR compared with those without bystander CPR for Hispanic patients was 1.29 (95% CI, 1.20-1.139), for Asian patients, it was 1.27 (95% CI, 1.12-1.42), and for those of unknown race, it was 1.31 (95% CI, 1.25-1.36). Similarly, bystander CPR was associated with higher survival in both sexes, but its association with survival was higher in men (adjusted OR, 1.35 [95% CI, 1.31-1.38]) than women (adjusted OR, 1.15 [95% CI, 1.12-1.19]; P interaction <0.001). The weaker association of bystander CPR in Black individuals and women was consistent across neighborhood race and ethnicity and income strata. Similar results were observed for the outcome of survival without severe neurological deficits., Conclusions: Although bystander CPR was associated with higher survival in all patients, its association with survival was weakest for Black individuals and women with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest., Competing Interests: None.

Importance: Survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) varies widely across emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in the US. However, little is known about which EMS practices are associated with higher agency-level survival., Objective: To identify resuscitation practices associated with favorable neurological survival for OHCA at EMS agencies., Design, Setting, and Participants: This cohort study surveyed EMS agencies participating in the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) with 10 or more OHCAs annually during January 2015 to December 2019; data analyses were performed from April to October 2023., Exposure: Survey of resuscitation practices at EMS agencies., Main Outcomes and Measures: Risk-standardized rates of favorable neurological survival for OHCA at each EMS agency were estimated using hierarchical logistic regression. Multivariable linear regression then examined the association of EMS practices with rates of risk-standardized favorable neurological survival., Results: Of 577 eligible EMS agencies, 470 agencies (81.5%) completed the survey. The mean (SD) rate of risk-standardized favorable neurological survival was 8.1% (1.8%). A total of 7 EMS practices across 3 domains (training, cardiopulmonary resuscitation [CPR], and transport) were associated with higher rates of risk-standardized favorable neurological survival. EMS agencies with higher favorable neurological survival rates were more likely to use simulation to assess CPR competency (β = 0.54; P = .05), perform frequent reassessment (at least once every 6 months) of CPR competency in new staff (β = 0.51; P = .04), use full multiperson scenario simulation for ongoing skills training (β = 0.48; P = .01), perform simulation training at least every 6 months (β = 0.63; P < .001), and conduct training in the use of mechanical CPR devices at least once annually (β = 0.43; P = .04). EMS agencies with higher risk-standardized favorable neurological survival were also more likely to use CPR feedback devices (β = 0.58; P = .007) and to transport patients to a designated cardiac arrest or ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction receiving center (β = 0.57; P = .003). Adoption of more than half (≥4) of the 7 practices was more common at EMS agencies in the highest quartile of favorable neurological survival rates (70 of 118 agencies [59.3%]) vs the lowest quartile (42 of 118 agencies [35.6%]) (P < .001)., Conclusions and Relevance: In a national registry for OHCA, 7 practices associated with higher rates of favorable neurological survival were identified at EMS agencies. Given wide variability in neurological survival across EMS agencies, these findings provide initial insights into EMS practices associated with top-performing EMS agencies in OHCA survival. Future studies are needed to validate these findings and identify best practices for EMS agencies.

Importance: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) duration is associated with cardiac arrest survival., Objectives: To describe characteristics associated with CPR duration among hospitalized children without return of circulation (ROC) (patient-level analysis) and determine whether hospital median CPR duration in patients without ROC is associated with survival (hospital-level analysis)., Design, Setting, and Participants: This retrospective cohort study of patients undergoing pediatric in-hospital CPR between January 1, 2000, and December 31, 2021, used data from the Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation registry. Children receiving chest compressions for at least 2 minutes and/or defibrillation were included in the patient-level analysis. For the hospital-level analysis, sites with at least 20 total events and at least 5 events without ROC were included. Data were analyzed from December 1, 2022, to November 15, 2023., Exposures: For the patient-level analysis, the exposure was CPR duration in patients without ROC. For the hospital-level analysis, the exposure was quartile of median CPR duration in events without ROC at each hospital., Main Outcomes and Measures: For the patient-level analysis, outcomes were patient and event factors, including race and ethnicity and event location; we used a multivariable hierarchical linear regression model to assess factors associated with CPR duration in patients without ROC. For the hospital-level analysis, the main outcome was survival to discharge among all site events; we used a random intercept multivariable hierarchical logistic regression model to examine the association between hospital quartile of CPR duration and survival to discharge., Results: Of 13 899 events, 3859 patients did not have ROC (median age, 7 months [IQR, 0 months to 7 years]; 2175 boys [56%]). Among event nonsurvivors, median CPR duration was longer in those with initial rhythms of bradycardia with poor perfusion (8.37 [95% CI, 5.70-11.03] minutes; P < .001), pulseless electrical activity (8.22 [95% CI, 5.44-11.00] minutes; P < .001), and pulseless ventricular tachycardia (6.17 [95% CI, 0.09-12.26] minutes; P = .047) (vs asystole). Shorter median CPR duration was associated with neonates compared with older children (-4.86 [95% CI, -8.88 to -0.84] minutes; P = .02), emergency department compared with pediatric intensive car7 e unit location (-4.02 [95% CI, -7.48 to -0.57] minutes; P = .02), and members of racial or ethnic minority groups compared with White patients (-3.67 [95% CI, -6.18 to -1.17]; P = .004). Among all CPR events, the adjusted odds of survival to discharge differed based on hospital quartile of median CPR duration among events without ROC; compared with quartile 1 (15.0-25.9 minutes), the adjusted odds ratio for quartile 2 (26.0-29.4 minutes) was 1.22 (95% CI, 1.09-1.36; P < .001); for quartile 3 (29.5-32.9 minutes), 1.23 (95% CI, 1.08-1.39; P = .002); and for quartile 4 (33.0-53.0 minutes), 1.04 (95% CI, 0.91-1.19; P = .58)., Conclusions and Relevance: In this retrospective cohort study of pediatric in-hospital CPR, several factors, including age and event location, were associated with CPR duration in event nonsurvivors. The odds of survival to discharge were lower for patients at hospitals with the shortest and longest median CPR durations among events without ROC. Further studies are needed to determine the optimal duration of CPR during pediatric in-hospital cardiac arrest and to provide training guidelines for resuscitation teams to eliminate disparities in resuscitation care.

Background: Delays in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are associated with worse out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) outcomes. Whether disparities exist in time to CPR between women and men is unknown., Methods: We included witnessed OHCAs treated with bystander CPR from the Cardiac Arrest Registry Enhancing Survival between 2013-2021. The primary outcome was time to first bystander CPR, and secondary outcomes were survival to hospital discharge and favorable neurological survival. Hierarchical ordinal regression was used to model time to first CPR, which estimates the odds of having a 2-minute longer delay (from 0 to ≥10 minutes) in receiving bystander CPR. The model included sex, age, race, location of arrest, cardiac arrest etiology, day of week, and season as fixed effects and EMS agency as a random effect to account for clustering of patients within an agency., Results: Of 78,043 patients with a witnessed OHCA that received bystander CPR, 25,197 (32.3%) were women. The median [IQR] time to first bystander CPR was 2 [1,5] minutes for both women and men. In adjusted analysis, time to bystander CPR was similar in men and women (p = 0.26). Moreover, there was a statistically significantly graded inverse association between time to bystander CPR and survival., Conclusion: For patients with witnessed OHCA that received bystander CPR, women and men had similar times to CPR, although 5-minute or greater delays in initiating CPR was not uncommon. Delays in bystander CPR in OHCA were associated with worse survival outcomes., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Every 10 years, the American Heart Association (AHA) Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee establishes goals to improve survival from cardiac arrest. These goals align with broader AHA Impact Goals and support the AHA's advocacy efforts and strategic investments in research, education, clinical care, and quality improvement programs. This scientific statement focuses on 2030 AHA emergency cardiovascular care priorities, with a specific focus on bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, early defibrillation, and neurologically intact survival. This scientific statement also includes aspirational goals, such as establishing cardiac arrest as a reportable disease and mandating reporting of standardized outcomes from different sources; advancing recognition of and knowledge about cardiac arrest; improving dispatch system response, availability, and access to resuscitation training in multiple settings and at multiple time points; improving availability, access, and affordability of defibrillators; providing a focus on early defibrillation, in-hospital programs, and establishing champions for debriefing and review of cardiac arrest events; and expanding measures to track outcomes beyond survival. The ability to track and report data from these broader aspirational targets will potentially require expansion of existing data sets, development of new data sets, and enhanced integration of technology to collect process and outcome data, as well as partnerships of the AHA with national, state, and local organizations. The COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic, disparities in COVID-19 outcomes for historically excluded racial and ethnic groups, and the longstanding disparities in cardiac arrest treatment and outcomes for Black and Hispanic or Latino populations also contributed to an explicit focus and target on equity for the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care 2030 Impact Goals.

Background: Prompt initiation of bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is critical to survival for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). However, the association between delays in bystander CPR and OHCA survival is poorly understood., Methods: In this observational study using a nationally representative US registry, we identified patients who received bystander CPR from a layperson for a witnessed OHCA from 2013 to 2021. Hierarchical logistic regression was used to estimate the association between time to CPR (<1 minute versus 2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, and ≥10-minute intervals) and survival to hospital discharge and favorable neurological survival (survival to discharge with cerebral performance category of 1 or 2 [ie, without severe neurological disability])., Results: Of 78 048 patients with a witnessed OHCA treated with bystander CPR, the mean age was 63.5±15.7 years and 25, 197 (32.3%) were women. The median time to bystander CPR was 2 (1-5) minutes, with 10% of patients having a≥10-minute delay before initiation of CPR. Overall, 15 000 (19.2%) patients survived to hospital discharge and 13 159 (16.9%) had favorable neurological survival. There was a graded inverse relationship between time to bystander CPR and survival to hospital discharge ( P for trend <0.001). Compared with patients who received CPR within 1 minute, those with a time to CPR of 2 to 3 minutes were 9% less likely to survive to discharge (adjusted odds ratio, 0.91 [95% CI, 0.87-0.95]) and those with a time to CPR 4 to 5 minutes were 27% less likely to survive (adjusted odds ratio, 0.73 [95% CI, 0.68-0.77]). A similar graded inverse relationship was found between time to bystander CPR and favorable neurological survival ( P for trend <0.001)., Conclusions: Among patients with witnessed OHCA, there was a dose-response relationship between delays in bystander initiation of CPR and lower survival rates., Competing Interests: Disclosures Dr Chan receives funding from the American Heart Association and is a consultant for Optum Rx. Dr McNally is the Executive Director of the CARES, which receives funding from the American Heart Association and American Red Cross. Dr Spertus reports providing consultative services on patient-reported outcomes and evidence valuation to Alnylam, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Merck, Janssen, Bristol Meyers Squibb, Edwards, Kineksia, 4DT Medical, Terumo, Cytokinetics, Imbria, and United Healthcare. He holds research grants from Bristol Meyers Squibb, Abbott Vascular and Janssen. He owns the copyright to the Seattle Angina Questionnaire, Kansas City Cardiomyopathy Questionnaire, and Peripheral Artery Questionnaire and serves on the Board of Directors for Blue Cross Blue Shield of Kansas City. The other authors report no conflicts.

Competing Interests: Disclosures Dr Chan has received research funding from the American Heart Association (AHA) and the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI). Dr Djärv is the chair of Swedish Resuscitation Council and the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation (ILCOR) First Aid Task Force. A. Doll is employed by the Resuscitation Academy. Dr Edelson has equity interest and employment in AgileMD. Dr Girotra receives funding from the National Institutes of Health (R01HL160734, R56HL158803, and R01HL166305). He also receives a stipend from AHA for editorial work. Dr Greif is chair of ILCOR Education, Implementation and Team Task Force and the European Resuscitation Council board birector of guidelines. Dr Lauridsen serves as an ERC Science and Education Committee member and member of the ILCOR EIT Task Force. Dr Moskowitz receives funding from NHLBI (R33HL162980). M.C. Myburgh serves on the ILCOR Pediatric Task Force. Dr Neumar is the ILCOR cochair. J.P. Nolan is the editor in chief of Resuscitation and receives National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) grant funding. Dr Olasveengen is a board member of the Laerdal Foundation. Dr Perkins receives grant funding from the NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands, Resuscitation Council United Kingdom, Laerdal Foundation, and the British Heart Foundation and serves on the boards for the European Resuscitation Council, Resuscitation Council UK, ILCOR, and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire. He also serves as an editor for Resuscitation and Resuscitation Plus. J.K. Previdi serves as the AHA Emergency Cardiovascular Care Committee chair and is an AHA product consultant. Dr Vaillancourt is a member of the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada Resuscitation Advisory Committee and receives funding from The Ottawa Hospital Academic Medical Organization. Dr Montgomery serves as the ILCOR consultant. Dr Sasson is employed by AHA. Dr Nallamothu has been a principal investigator or coinvestigator on research grants from the NIH, AHA, Janssen, and Apple, Inc. He also receives compensation as an editor in chief of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality and Outcomes. Finally, he is a coinventor on the US Utility Patent Number US15/356012 (US20170148158A1) entitled “Automated Analysis of Vasculature in Coronary Angiograms” that uses software technology with signal processing and machine learning to automate the reading of coronary angiograms, held by the University of Michigan. The patent is licensed to AngioInsight, Inc, in which he holds ownership shares and receives consultancy fees. Dr Nadkarni receives research funding to his institution from the National Institutes of Health, Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, US Department of Defense, American Heart Association, Zoll Medical, RQI Partners, and Laerdal Foundation; he also serves as the President of the Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) 2023-2024. The views expressed in the manuscript are his, and not intended to represent the views of the SCCM. The other authors report no conflicts.

Importance: Black and Hispanic patients are less likely to survive an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) than White patients. Given the central importance of emergency medical service (EMS) agencies in prehospital care, a better understanding of OHCA survival at EMS agencies that work in Black and Hispanic communities and White communities is needed to address OHCA disparities., Objective: To examine whether EMS agencies serving catchment areas with primarily Black and Hispanic populations (Black and Hispanic catchment areas) have different rates of OHCA survival than agencies serving catchment areas with primarily White populations (White catchment areas)., Design, Setting, and Participants: A cohort study including adults with nontraumatic OHCA from January 1, 2015, to December 31, 2019, in the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival was conducted. Data analysis was conducted from August 17, 2022, to July 7, 2023., Exposure: Emergency medical service agencies, categorized as working in catchment areas where the combination of Black and Hispanic residents made up more than 50% of the population or where White residents made up more than 50% of the population., Main Outcomes and Measures: The unit of analysis was the EMS agency. The primary outcome was agency-level risk-standardized survival rates (RSSRs) to hospital admission for OHCA at each EMS agency, which were calculated using hierarchical logistic regression and compared between agencies serving Black and Hispanic and White catchment areas. Whether differences in OHCA survival were explained by EMS and first responder measures was evaluated with additional adjustment for these factors., Results: Among 764 EMS agencies representing 258 342 OHCAs, 82 EMS agencies (10.7%) had a Black and Hispanic catchment area. Overall median age of the patients was 63.0 (IQR, 52.0-75.0) years, 36.1% were women, and 63.9% were men. Overall, the mean (SD) RSSR was 27.5% (3.6%), with lower survival at EMS agencies with Black and Hispanic catchment areas (25.8% [3.6%]) compared with agencies with White catchment areas (27.7% [3.5%]; P < .001). Among the 82 EMS agencies with Black and Hispanic catchment areas, a disproportionately higher number (32 [39.0%]) was in the lowest survival quartile, whereas a lower number (12 [14.6%]) was in the highest survival quartile. Additional adjustment for EMS response times, EMS termination of resuscitation rates, and first responder rates of initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation or applying an automated external defibrillator before EMS arrival did not meaningfully attenuate differences in RSSRs between agencies with Black and Hispanic compared with White catchment areas (mean [SD] RSSRs after adjustment, 25.9% [3.3%] vs 27.7% [3.1%]; P < .001)., Conclusions and Relevance: Risk-standardized survival rates for OHCA were 1.9% lower at EMS agencies working in Black and Hispanic catchment areas than in White catchment areas. This difference was not explained by EMS response times, rates of EMS termination of resuscitation, or first responder rates of initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation or applying an automated external defibrillator. These findings suggest there is a need for further assessment of these discrepancies.

Background Disparities in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and survival have been reported for Black and Hispanic individuals with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Whether Asian individuals have lower rates of bystander CPR and survival for OHCA, as compared with White individuals, remains unknown. Methods and Results Within the US-based CARES (Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival), we identified 278 989 OHCAs in Asian and White individuals during 2013 to 2021. Using hierarchical Poisson logistic regression with emergency medical service agency modeled as a random effect and patient and OHCA characteristics as fixed effects, we compared rates of bystander CPR, survival to discharge, and favorable neurological survival between Asian and White individuals with OHCA. Overall, 14 835 (5.3%) OHCAs occurred in Asian individuals. Compared with White individuals with OHCA, Asian individuals were older (67.0±17.6 versus 62.8±16.9 years) and were less likely to have drug overdose as the cause of OHCA (1.3% versus 6.6%) and a shockable arrest rhythm (19.2% versus 22.4%). Layperson bystander CPR rates were similar between Asian and White individuals (42.6% versus 42.1%; adjusted relative risk for Asian individuals, 0.99 [95% CI, 0.97-1.02]; P =0.69). However, rates of survival to discharge were lower in Asian individuals with OHCA (8.2% versus 10.3%; adjusted relative risk 0.92 [0.86-0.98] P =0.006). Similarly, the rate of favorable neurological survival was lower for Asian individuals (6.5% versus 8.7%; adjusted relative risk, 0.85 [0.79-0.91]; P <0.001). Conclusions Despite similar rates of bystander CPR, Asian individuals with OHCA have lower survival rates than White individuals with OHCA. The reasons for the lower survival rate deserve further study to determine whether there are disparities in resuscitation care between Asian and White individuals with OHCA.

Background: In most patients with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is initiated by first responders (non-transporting firefighters or police) or emergency medical service (EMS) personnel. Whether survival outcomes differ when CPR is initiated by first responders vs. EMS is unclear., Methods: Within the CARES registry, we identified 162,896 adult patients with a non-traumatic OHCA in whom CPR was initiated by first responders or EMS during 2013-2021. Using multivariable hierarchical logistic regression to adjust for demographics, cardiac arrest characteristics and time to first CPR, we compared rates of survival to hospital admission and to discharge in patients with CPR initiated by first responders and EMS., Results: CPR was initiated by first responders in 70,889 (43.5%) and by EMS in 92,007 (56.5%) patients. Time to first CPR was shorter when first responders initiated CPR (median: 8.0 [5.0-13.0] vs. 10.0 minutes [IQR: 6.0-14.0]; standardized difference 16.1%). The likelihood of survival to hospital admission was similar when CPR was initiated by first responders (27.1% [first responders] vs. 26.8% [EMS]; adjusted OR: 0.98 [0.96, 1.01], P = 0.15) whereas survival rates to discharge were higher with CPR initiated by first responders (9.4% [first responders] vs. 7.7% [EMS]; adjusted OR: 1.17 [1.02, 1.21], P < 0.001). After adjustment for time to first CPR, rates of survival to discharge were similar between the first responder and EMS groups (adjusted OR: 1.04 [1.00-1.08]; P = 0.07)., Conclusions: CPR initiated by first responders for OHCA is associated with higher overall survival rates and higher survival was largely mediated by earlier response times., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests: ‘Dr. El-Zein is supported by the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institutes of Health under Award Number 5T32H110837. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Chan is supported by the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (1R01HL160734). Dr. Chan is supported by funding from the American Heart Association for editorial work’., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Risk-standardized survival rates (RSSR) for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) have been widely used for hospital benchmarking and research. The novel coronavirus 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a substantial decline in IHCA survival as COVID-19 infection is associated with markedly lower survival. Therefore, there is a need to update the model for computing RSSRs for IHCA given the COVID-19 pandemic., Methods: Within Get With The Guidelines®-Resuscitation, we identified 53,922 adult patients with IHCA from March, 2020 to December, 2021 (the COVID-19 era). Using hierarchical logistic regression, we derived and validated an updated model for survival to hospital discharge and compared the performance of this updated RSSR model with the previous model., Results: The survival rate was 21.0% and 20.8% for the derivation and validation cohorts, respectively. The model had good discrimination (C-statistic 0.72) and excellent calibration. The updated parsimonious model comprised 13 variables-all 9 predictors in the original model as well as 4 additional predictors, including COVID-19 infection status. When applied to data from the pre-pandemic period of 2018-2019, there was a strong correlation (r = 0.993) between RSSRs obtained from the updated and the previous models., Conclusion: We have derived and validated an updated model to risk-standardize hospital rates of survival for IHCA. The updated model yielded RSSRs that were similar to the initial model for IHCAs in the pre-pandemic period and can be used for supporting ongoing efforts to benchmark hospitals and facilitate research that uses data from either before or after the emergence of COVID-19., (Copyright © 2023 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Prior studies have identified socio-cultural barriers in laypersons performing high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in women. Whether the effect of layperson bystander CPR on survival from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) differs by patients' sex is unknown., Methods: Using data during 2013-2020 from an OHCA registry in the U.S., we identified adult patients with non-traumatic OHCA. The primary outcome was favorable neurological survival and the secondary outcome was survival to discharge. Multivariable logistic regression models evaluated the interaction between patients' sex and bystander CPR with survival, adjusted for patient and cardiac arrest characteristics., Results: Of 420,671 patients with OHCA, 151,145 (35.9 %) occurred in women and 269,526 (64.1 %) in men. Rates of layperson bystander CPR were similar between women (38.3 %) and men (40.0 %). Rates of favorable neurological survival were 11.4 % in those with bystander CPR and 5.6 % in those without, but the association between bystander CPR and favorable neurological survival was weaker for women than men (women: adjusted OR, 1.33 [95 % CI: 1.27-1.39]; men: adjusted OR, 1.55 [95 % CI: 1.51-1.61]; interaction p < 0.001)]. Rates of survival to discharge were 13.1 % and 7.3 % in those with and without layperson bystander CPR, and the association between bystander CPR was weaker for women than men (women: adjusted OR, 1.21 [95 % CI: 1.16-1.26]; men: adjusted OR, 1.43 [95 % CI: 1.39-1.47]; interaction p < 0.001)., Conclusions: For OHCA, bystander CPR was associated with higher survival in women and men. However, as currently practiced, the association between bystander CPR and higher survival was weaker for women as compared with men., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: In-hospital cardiac arrest during cardiac catheterization is not uncommon. The extent of variation in survival after cardiac arrest occurring in the cardiac catheterization laboratory (CCL) and underlying factors are not well known., Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with higher survival rates after an index cardiac arrest in the CCL., Methods: Within the GWTG (Get With The Guidelines)-Resuscitation registry, patients ≥18 years of age who had index in-hospital cardiac arrest in the CCL between January 1, 2003, and December 31, 2017, were identified. Hierarchical models were used to adjust for demographics, comorbidities, and cardiac arrest characteristics to generate risk-adjusted survival rates (RASRs) to discharge for each hospital with ≥5 cases during the study period. Median OR was used to quantify the extent of hospital-level variation in RASR., Results: The study included 4,787 patients from 231 hospitals. The median RASR was 36% (IQR: 21%) and varied from a median of 20% to 52% among hospitals in the lowest and highest tertiles of RASR, respectively. The median OR was 1.71 (95% CI: 1.52-1.87), suggesting that the odds of survival for patients with identical characteristics with in-hospital cardiac arrest in the CCL from 2 randomly chosen different hospitals varied by 71%. Hospitals with greater annual numbers of cardiac arrest cases in the CCL had higher RASRs., Conclusions: Even in controlled settings such as the CCL, there is significant hospital-level variation in survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest, which suggests an important opportunity to improve resuscitation outcomes in procedural areas., Competing Interests: Funding Support and Author Disclosures Dr Chan is supported by a grant from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (R01HL160734); and has received consultancy funding from Optum Rx and the American Heart Association. Dr Hirsch is supported by National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute research funding (grant 5U54HL120163-10). Dr Drachman has received consulting honoraria from Boston Scientific, Broadview Ventures, Cardiovascular Systems, and Cordis. Dr Hirsch has received consultant funding from Riva Health. Dr Elmariah has received institutional research support from Siemens and Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals; and has received consulting fees from Medtronic and Edwards Lifesciences. Dr Bhatt is an advisory board member for Boehringer Ingelheim, Cardax, CellProthera, Cereno Scientific, Elsevier Practice Update Cardiology, Janssen, Level Ex, Medscape Cardiology, MyoKardia, NirvaMed, Novo Nordisk, PhaseBio, PLx Pharma, Regado Biosciences, and Stasys; is on the boards of directors of AngioWave (stock options), Boston VA Research Institute, Bristol Myers Squibb (stock), DRS.LINQ (stock options), High Enroll (stock), Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care, and TobeSoft; is inaugural chair of the American Heart Association Quality Oversight Committee; is a member of data monitoring committees for the Baim Institute for Clinical Research (formerly Harvard Clinical Research Institute, for the PORTICO trial, funded by St. Jude Medical, now Abbott), Boston Scientific (chair, PEITHO trial), the Cleveland Clinic (including for the ExCEED trial, funded by Edwards), Contego Medical (chair, PERFORMANCE 2), the Duke Clinical Research Institute, the Mayo Clinic, Mount Sinai School of Medicine (for the ENVISAGE trial, funded by Daiichi Sankyo), Novartis, and the Population Health Research Institute; has received honoraria from the American College of Cardiology (senior associate editor, Clinical Trials and News and ACC.org; chair, American College of Cardiology Accreditation Oversight Committee), the law firm of Arnold & Porter (for work related to Sanofi/Bristol Myers Squibb clopidogrel litigation), the Baim Institute for Clinical Research (formerly Harvard Clinical Research Institute; RE-DUAL PCI clinical trial steering committee, funded by Boehringer Ingelheim; AEGIS-II executive committee, funded by CSL Behring), Belvoir Publications (editor-in-chief, Harvard Heart Letter), the Canadian Medical and Surgical Knowledge Translation Research Group (clinical trial steering committees), the Duke Clinical Research Institute (clinical trial steering committees, including for the PRONOUNCE trial, funded by Ferring Pharmaceuticals), HMP Global (editor-in-chief, Journal of Invasive Cardiology), the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (guest editor and associate editor), K2P (co-chair, interdisciplinary curriculum), Level Ex, Medtelligence/ReachMD (continuing medical education steering committees), MJH Life Sciences, Piper Sandler, the Population Health Research Institute (for the COMPASS operations committee, publications committee, steering committee, and U.S. national coleader, funded by Bayer), Slack Publications (chief medical editor, Cardiology Today’s Intervention), the Society of Cardiovascular Patient Care (secretary/treasurer), WebMD (continuing medical education steering committees); is deputy editor of Clinical Cardiology; is chair of the NCDR-ACTION Registry Steering Committee and the VA CART Research and Publications Committee; has received research funding from Abbott, Afimmune, Amarin, Amgen, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bristol Myers Squibb, Cardax, CellProthera, Cereno Scientific, Chiesi, CSL Behring, Eisai, Ethicon, Ferring Pharmaceuticals, Forest Laboratories, Fractyl, Garmin, HLS Therapeutics, Idorsia, Ironwood, Ischemix, Janssen, Lexicon, Lilly, Medtronic, MyoKardia, NirvaMed, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Owkin, Pfizer, PhaseBio, PLx Pharma, Regeneron, Roche, Sanofi, Stasys, Synaptic, The Medicines Company, 89Bio; has received royalties from Elsevier (editor, Cardiovascular Intervention: A Companion to Braunwald’s Heart Disease); is a site coinvestigator for Abbott, Biotronik, Boston Scientific, Cardiovascular Systems Inc, St. Jude Medical (now Abbott), Philips, and Svelte; is a trustee of the American College of Cardiology; and has conducted unfunded research for FlowCo, Merck, and Takeda. All other authors have reported that they have no relationships relevant to the contents of this paper to disclose., (Copyright © 2022 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objective: To examine whether TTM treatment was aligned with predicted mortality risk in patients with resuscitated OHCA during a period when it was a class I guideline-recommended therapy., Methods: Within the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival for OHCA, we identified adult patients with OHCA who survived to hospital admission and were presumed eligible for TTM. Multivariable models were constructed using pre-hospital variables to predict in-hospital death in patients with shockable and non-shockable rhythms. Within each rhythm category, we divided patients into deciles of predicted mortality risk and examined TTM treatment rates across deciles., Results: From 2013-2019, there were 25,882 successfully resuscitated patients with shockable rhythms and 43,414 patients with non-shockable rhythms presumed eligible for TTM. Of patients with shockable rhythms, predicted in-hospital mortality ranged from 16%-78% in deciles 1-10. TTM treatment increased from 44% in decile 1 to 59% in decile 10 (P for trend < 0.001), but over a third of patients in deciles 4-9 were not treated with TTM. Of patients with non-shockable rhythms, predicted mortality ranged from 48%-95% in deciles 1-10. Although TTM treatment rates increased from 36% in decile 1 to 43% in decile 10 (P for trend 0.003), TTM treatment rates were agnostic to mortality risk (44% to 47%) from decile 2-9., Conclusion: TTM treatment patterns were not well-aligned with patients' mortality risk during a period when it was a guideline-recommended treatment for OHCA. Identifying strategies to better align guideline-recommended treatments with patients' mortality risk is critical for efforts to improve OHCA survival., (Copyright © 2022 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Differences in the incidence of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) provided by bystanders contribute to survival disparities among persons with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. It is critical to understand whether the incidence of bystander CPR in witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests at home and in public settings differs according to the race or ethnic group of the person with cardiac arrest in order to inform interventions., Methods: Within a large U.S. registry, we identified 110,054 witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests during the period from 2013 through 2019. We used a hierarchical logistic regression model to analyze the incidence of bystander CPR in Black or Hispanic persons as compared with White persons with witnessed cardiac arrests at home and in public locations. We analyzed the overall incidence as well as the incidence according to neighborhood racial or ethnic makeup and income strata. Neighborhoods were classified as predominantly White (>80% of residents), majority Black or Hispanic (>50% of residents), or integrated, and as high income (an annual median household income of >$80,000), middle income ($40,000-$80,000), or low income (<$40,000)., Results: Overall, 35,469 of the witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrests (32.2%) occurred in Black or Hispanic persons. Black and Hispanic persons were less likely to receive bystander CPR at home (38.5%) than White persons (47.4%) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.74; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.72 to 0.76) and less likely to receive bystander CPR in public locations than White persons (45.6% vs. 60.0%) (adjusted odds ratio, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.66). The incidence of bystander CPR among Black and Hispanic persons was less than that among White persons not only in predominantly White neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.90) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.68; 95% CI, 0.60 to 0.75) but also in majority Black or Hispanic neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.79; 95% CI, 0.75 to 0.83) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.59 to 0.68) and in integrated neighborhoods at home (adjusted odds ratio, 0.78; 95% CI, 0.74 to 0.81) and in public locations (adjusted odds ratio, 0.73; 95% CI, 0.68 to 0.77). Similarly, across all neighborhood income strata, the frequency of bystander CPR at home and in public locations was lower among Black and Hispanic persons with out-of-hospital cardiac arrest than among White persons., Conclusions: In witnessed out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, Black and Hispanic persons were less likely than White persons to receive potentially lifesaving bystander CPR at home and in public locations, regardless of the racial or ethnic makeup or income level of the neighborhood where the cardiac arrest occurred. (Funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute.)., (Copyright © 2022 Massachusetts Medical Society.)

Background: Although studies have reported variation in out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) survival by geographic location, little is known about variation in OHCA survival at the level of emergency medical service (EMS) agencies-which may have modifiable practices, unlike counties and regions. We quantified the variation in OHCA survival across EMS agencies and explored whether variation in 2 specific EMS resuscitation practices were associated with survival to hospital admission., Methods: Within the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, a prospective registry representing ≈51% of the US population, we identified 258 342 OHCAs from 764 EMS agencies with > 10 OHCA cases annually during 2015 to 2019. Using hierarchical logistic regression, risk-standardized rates of survival to hospital admission were computed for each EMS agency. We quantified inter-agency variation in survival with median odds ratios and assessed the association of 2 resuscitation practices (EMS response time and the proportion of OHCAs with termination of resuscitation without meeting futility criteria) with EMS agency survival rates to hospital admission., Results: Across 764 EMS agencies comprising 258 342 OHCAs, the median risk-standardized rate of survival to hospital admission was 27.3% (interquartile range, 24.5%-30.1%; range: 16.0%-45.6%). The adjusted median odds ratio was 1.35 (95% CI, 1.32-1.39), denoting that the odds of survival of 2 patients with identical covariates varied by 35% at 2 randomly selected EMS agencies. EMS agencies in the lowest quartile of risk-standardized survival had longer EMS response times when compared with the highest quartile (12.0±3.4 versus 9.0±2.6 minutes; P <0.001), and a higher proportion of OHCAs with termination of resuscitation without meeting futility criteria (27.9±16.1% versus 18.9±11.4%; P <0.001)., Conclusions: Survival after OHCA varies widely across EMS agencies. EMS response times and termination of resuscitation practices were associated with agency-level rates of survival to hospital admission, suggesting potentially modifiable practices which can improve OHCA survival.

Background: Early studies found low survival rates for adults with COVID-19 infection and in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). We evaluated the association of COVID-19 infection on survival outcomes in pediatric patients undergoing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR)., Methods: Within Get-With-The-Guidelines®-Resuscitation, we identified pediatric patients who underwent CPR for an IHCA or bradycardia with poor perfusion between March and December, 2020. We compared survival outcomes (survival to discharge and return of spontaneous circulation for ≥20 minutes [ROSC]) between patients with suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection and non-COVID-19 patients using multivariable hierarchical regression, with hospital site as a random effect and patient and cardiac arrest variables with a significant (p < 0.05) bivariate association as fixed effects., Results: Overall, 1328 pediatric in-hospital CPR events were identified (590 IHCA, 738 bradycardia with poor perfusion), of which 46 (32 IHCA, 14 bradycardia) had suspected/confirmed COVID-19 infection. Rates of survival to discharge were similar between those with and without COVID-19 infection (39.1% vs. 44.9%; adjusted RR, 1.14 [95% CI: 0.55-2.36]), and these estimates were similar for those with IHCA and bradycardia with poor perfusion (adjusted RRs of 1.03 and 1.05; interaction p = 0.96). Rates of ROSC were also similar between pediatric patients with and without COVID-19 overall (67.4% vs. 76.9%; adjusted RR, 0.87 [0.43, 1.77]), and for the subgroups with IHCA or bradycardia requiring CPR (adjusted RRs of 0.95 and 0.86, interaction p = 0.26)., Conclusions: In a large multicenter national registry of CPR events, COVID-19 infection was not associated with lower rates of ROSC or survival to hospital discharge in pediatric patients undergoing CPR., (Copyright © 2022. Published by Elsevier B.V.)

Background: Maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest is a rare event with the potential for resuscitation treatment delays because of the difficulty accessing hospital obstetrical units and limited simulation training or resuscitation experience of obstetrical staff. However, it is unclear whether survival rates and processes of care differ between women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest and those with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest., Objective: We aimed determine whether to there are delays in process measures and differences in survival outcomes between pregnant and nonpregnant women who have in-hospital cardiac arrest., Study Design: Using data from 2000 to 2019 in the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry, we compared resuscitation outcomes between women aged 18 to 50 years with a maternal or nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest. Using a nonparsimonious propensity score, we matched patients with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest to as many as 10 women with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest. We constructed conditional logistic regression models to compare survival outcomes (survival to discharge, favorable neurologic survival [discharge cerebral performance score of 1], and return of spontaneous circulation) and processes of care (delayed defibrillation [>2 minutes] and administration of epinephrine [>5 minutes]) between women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest vs those with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest., Results: Overall, 421 women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest were matched by propensity score to 2316 women with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest. The mean age among propensity score-matched women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest was 31.4 (standard deviation, 6.5) years, where 33.7% were of Black race and 86.9% had an initial nonshockable cardiac arrest rhythm. Unadjusted survival rates were higher in women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest than in women with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest: survival to discharge of 45.1% vs 26.5%, survival with cerebral performance category 1 status of 36.1% vs 17.7%, and return of spontaneous circulation of 75.8% vs 70.6%. After adjustment, there was no difference in the likelihood of survival to discharge (odds ratio, 1.19; 95% confidence interval, 0.82-1.73) or return of spontaneous circulation (odds ratio, 0.94; 95% confidence interval, 0.65-1.35) between women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest and those with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest. However, women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest were more likely to have favorable neurologic survival (odds ratio, 1.57; 95% confidence interval, 1.06-2.33). Compared with women with a nonmaternal in-hospital cardiac arrest, women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest had similar rates of delayed defibrillation (42.5% vs 34.4%; odds ratio, 1.14 [95% confidence interval, 0.41-3.18]; P=.31) and delayed administration of epinephrine (13.8% vs 10.6%; odds ratio, 0.96 [95% confidence interval, 0.50-1.86]; P=.09)., Conclusion: Although concerns have been raised about resuscitation outcomes in women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest, the rates of survival and resuscitation processes of care were not worse in women with a maternal in-hospital cardiac arrest., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: Patients with ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) complicated by an out-of-hospital-cardiac-arrest (OHCA) may vary widely in their probability of dying. Large variation in mortality may have implications for current national efforts to benchmark operator and hospital mortality rates for coronary angiography. We aimed to build a risk-adjustment model of in-hospital mortality among OHCA survivors with concurrent STEMI., Methods: Within the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES), we included adults with OHCA and STEMI who underwent emergent angiography within 2 hours of hospital arrival between January 2013 and December 2019. Using multivariable logistic regression to adjust for patient and cardiac arrest factors, we developed a risk-adjustment model for in-hospital mortality and examined variation in patients' predicted mortality., Results: Of 2,999 patients (mean age 61.2 ± 12.0, 23.1% female, 64.6% white), 996 (33.2%) died during their hospitalization. The final risk-adjustment model included higher age (OR per 10-year increase, 1.50 [95% CI: 1.39-1.63]), unwitnessed OHCA (OR, 2.51 [1.99-3.16]), initial non-shockable rhythm [OR, 5.66 [4.52-7.13]), lack of sustained pulse for > 20 minutes (OR, 2.52 [1.88-3.36]), and longer resuscitation time (increased with each 10-minute interval) (c-statistic = 0.804 with excellent calibration). There was large variability in predicted mortality: median, 25.2%, inter-quartile-range: 14.0% to 47.8%, 10th-90th percentile: 8.2 % to 74.1%., Conclusions: In a large national registry, we identified 5 key predictors for mortality in patients with STEMI and OHCA and found wide variability in mortality risk. Our findings suggest that current national benchmarking efforts for coronary angiography, which simply adjusts for the presence of OHCA, may not adequately capture patient case-mix severity., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Recent reports on challenges in resuscitation care at hospitals severely affected by the novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic raise questions about how the pandemic affected outcomes for in-hospital cardiac arrest throughout the United States., Methods: Within Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation, we conducted a retrospective cohort study to compare in-hospital cardiac arrest survival during the presurge (January 1-February 29), surge (March 1-May 15) and immediate postsurge (May 16-June 30) periods in 2020 compared to 2015 to 2019. Monthly COVID-19 mortality rates for each hospital's county were categorized, per 1 000 000 residents, as low (0-10), moderate (11-50), high (51-100), or very high (>100). Using hierarchical regression models, we compared rates of survival to discharge in 2020 versus 2015 to 2019 for each period., Results: Of 61 586 in-hospital cardiac arrests, 21 208 (4309 in 2020), 26 459 (5949 in 2020), and 13 919 (2686 in 2020) occurred in the presurge, surge, and postsurge periods, respectively. During the presurge period, 24.2% survived to discharge in 2020 versus 24.7% in 2015 to 2019 (adjusted odds ratio, 1.12 [95% CI, 1.02-1.22]). In contrast, during the surge period, 19.6% survived to discharge in 2020 versus 26.0% in 2015 to 2019 (adjusted odds ratio, 0.81 [0.75-0.88]). Lower survival was most pronounced in communities with high (28% lower survival) and very high (42% lower survival) monthly COVID-19 mortality rates (interaction P <0.001). Resuscitation times were shorter (median: 22 versus 25 minutes; P <0.001), and delayed epinephrine treatment was more prevalent (11.3% versus 9.9%; P =0.004) during the surge period. Survival was lower even when patients with confirmed/suspected COVID-19 infection were excluded from analyses. During the postsurge period, survival rates were similar in 2020 versus 2015 to 2019 (22.3% versus 25.8%; adjusted odds ratio, 0.93 [0.83-1.04]), including communities with high COVID-19 mortality (interaction P =0.16)., Conclusions: Early during the pandemic, rates of survival to discharge for IHCA decreased, even among patients without COVID-19 infection, highlighting the early impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on in-hospital resuscitation.

Background: Studies have reported lower survival for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) during the initial COVID-19 surge. Whether the pandemic reduced IHCA survival during subsequent surges and in areas with lower COVID-19 rates is unknown., Methods: Within Get-With-The-Guidelines®-Resuscitation, we identified 22,899 and 79,736 IHCAs during March to December in 2020 and 2015-2019, respectively. Using hierarchical regression, we compared risk-adjusted rates of survival to discharge in 2020 vs. 2015-19 during five COVID-19 periods: Surge 1 (March to mid-May), post-Surge 1 (mid-May to June), Surge 2 (July to mid-August), post-Surge 2 (mid-August to mid-October), and Surge 3 (mid-October to December). Monthly COVID-19 mortality rates for each hospital's county were categorized, per 1,000,000 residents, as very low (0-10), low (11-50), moderate (51-100), or high (>100)., Results: During each COVID-19 surge period in 2020, rates of survival to discharge for IHCA were lower, as compared with the same period in 2015-2019: Surge 1: adjusted OR: 0.81 (0.75-0.88); Surge 2: adjusted OR: 0.88 (0.79-0.97), Surge 3: adjusted OR: 0.79 (0.73-0.86). Lower survival was most pronounced at hospitals located in counties with moderate to high monthly COVID-19 mortality rates. In contrast, during the two post-surge periods, survival rates were similar in 2020 vs. 2015-2019: post-Surge 1: adjusted OR 0.93 (0.83-1.04) and post-Surge 2: adjusted OR 0.94 (0.86-1.03), even at hospitals with the highest county-level COVID-19 mortality rates., Conclusions: During the three COVID-19 surges in the U.S. during 2020, rates of survival to discharge for IHCA dropped substantially, especially in communities with moderate to high COVID-19 mortality rates., Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Survival outcomes following in-hospital cardiac arrest vary significantly across hospitals. Research suggests clinician education and training may play a role. We sought to identify best practices related to the education and training of resuscitation teams., Methods: We conducted a descriptive qualitative analysis of semistructured interview data obtained from in-depth site visits conducted from 2016 to 2017 at 9 diverse hospitals within the American Heart Association "Get With The Guidelines" registry, selected based on in-hospital cardiac arrest survival performance (5 top-, 1 middle-, 3 low-performing). We assessed coded data related to education and training including systems learning, informal feedback and debrief, and formal learning through advanced cardiopulmonary life support and mock codes. Thematic analysis was used to identify best practices., Results: In total, 129 interviews were conducted with a variety of hospital staff including nurses, chaplains, security guards, respiratory therapists, physicians, pharmacists, and administrators, yielding 78 hours and 29 minutes of interview time. Four themes related to training and education were identified: engagement, clear communication, consistency, and responsive leadership. Top-performing hospitals encouraged employee engagement with creative marketing of new programs and prioritizing hands-on learning over passive didactics. Clear communication was accomplished with debriefing, structured institutional review, and continual, frequent education for departments. Consistency was a cornerstone to culture change and was achieved with uniform policies for simulation practice as well as reinforced, routine practice (weekly, monthly, quarterly). Finally, top-performing hospitals had responsive leadership teams across multiple disciplines (nursing, respiratory therapy, pharmacy and medicine), who listened and adapted programs to fit the needs of their staff., Conclusions: Among top-performing hospitals excelling in in-hospital cardiac arrest survival, we identified core elements for education and training of resuscitation teams. Developing tools to expand these areas for hospitals may improve in-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes.

Background: Approximately 1000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) occur each day in the United States. Although sex differences exist for other cardiovascular conditions such as stroke and acute myocardial infarction, they are less well understood for OHCA. Specifically, the extent to which neurological and survival outcomes after OHCA differ between men and women remains poorly characterized in the U.S., Methods and Results: Within the national Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) registry, we identified 326,138 adults with an OHCA from 2013 to 2019. Using multivariable logistic regression, we evaluated for sex differences in rates of survival to hospital admission, survival to hospital discharge, and favorable neurological survival (i.e., without severe neurological disability), adjusted for demographics, cardiac arrest characteristics and bystander interventions. Overall, 117,281 (36%) patients were women. Median age was 62 and 65 years for men and women, respectively. An initial shockable rhythm (25.1% vs 14.7%, standardized difference of 0.26) and an arrest in a public location (22.2% vs. 11.3%; standardized difference of 0.30) were more common in men, but there were no meaningful sex differences in rates of witnessed arrests, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, intra-venous access, or use of mechanical devices for delivering cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Overall, the unadjusted rates of all survival outcomes were similar between men and women: survival to hospital admission (27.0% for men vs. 27.9% for women, standardized difference of -0.02), survival to hospital discharge (10.5% for men vs. 8.6% for women, standardized difference of 0.07), and favorable neurological survival (9.0% for men vs. 6.6% for women, standardized difference of 0.09). After multivariable adjustment, however, men were less likely to survive to hospital admission (adjusted OR = 0.75, 95% CI: 0.73, 0.77), survive to hospital discharge (adjusted OR = 0.83, 95% CI: 0.80, 0.85), or have favorable neurological survival (adjusted OR = 0.88, 95% CI: 0.85, 0.91)., Conclusions: Compared to women, men with OHCA have more favorable cardiac arrest characteristics but were less likely to survive to hospital admission, survive to discharge, nor have favorable neurological survival., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Importance: Recent reports from communities severely affected by the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic found lower rates of sustained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Whether the pandemic has affected OHCA outcomes more broadly is unknown., Objective: To assess the association between the COVID-19 pandemic and OHCA outcomes, including in areas with low and moderate COVID-19 disease burden., Design, Setting, and Participants: This study used a large US registry of OHCAs to compare outcomes during the pandemic period of March 16 through April 30, 2020, with those from March 16 through April 30, 2019. Cases were geocoded to US counties, and the COVID-19 mortality rate in each county was categorized as very low (0-25 per million residents), low (26-100 per million residents), moderate (101-250 per million residents), high (251-500 per million residents), or very high (>500 per million residents). As additional controls, the study compared OHCA outcomes during the prepandemic period (January through February) and peripandemic period (March 1 through 15)., Exposure: The COVID-19 pandemic., Main Outcomes and Measures: Sustained ROSC (≥20 minutes), survival to discharge, and OHCA incidence., Results: A total of 19 303 OHCAs occurred from March 16 through April 30 in both years, with 9863 cases in 2020 (mean [SD] age, 62.6 [19.3] years; 6040 men [61.3%]) and 9440 in 2019 (mean [SD] age, 62.2 [19.2] years; 5922 men [62.7%]). During the pandemic, rates of sustained ROSC were lower than in 2019 (23.0% vs 29.8%; adjusted rate ratio, 0.82 [95% CI, 0.78-0.87]; P < .001). Sustained ROSC rates were lower by between 21% (286 of 1429 [20.0%] in 2020 vs 305 of 1130 [27.0%] in 2019; adjusted RR, 0.79 [95% CI, 0.65-0.97]) and 33% (149 of 863 [17.3%] in 2020 vs 192 of 667 [28.8%] in 2019; adjusted RR, 0.67 [95% CI, 0.56-0.80]) in communities with high or very high COVID-19 mortality, respectively; however, rates of sustained ROSC were also lower by 11% (583 of 2317 [25.2%] in 2020 vs 740 of 2549 [29.0%] in 2019; adjusted RR, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.81-0.98]) to 15% (889 of 3495 [25.4%] in 2020 vs 1109 of 3532 [31.4%] in 2019; adjusted RR, 0.85 [95% CI, 0.78-0.93]) in communities with very low and low COVID-19 mortality. Among emergency medical services agencies with complete data on hospital survival (7085 total patients), survival to discharge was lower during the pandemic compared with 2019 (6.6% vs 9.8%; adjusted RR, 0.83 [95% CI, 0.69-1.00]; P = .048), primarily in communities with moderate to very high COVID-19 mortality (interaction P = .049). Incidence of OHCA was higher than in 2019, but the increase was largely observed in communities with high COVID-19 mortality (adjusted mean difference, 38.6 [95% CI, 37.1-40.1] per million residents) and very high COVID-19 mortality (adjusted mean difference, 28.7 [95% CI, 26.7-30.6] per million residents). In contrast, there was no difference in rates of sustained ROSC or survival to discharge during the prepandemic and peripandemic periods in 2020 vs 2019., Conclusions and Relevance: Early during the pandemic, rates of sustained ROSC for OHCA were lower throughout the US, even in communities with low COVID-19 mortality rates. Overall survival was lower, primarily in communities with moderate or high COVID-19 mortality.

Background Although many hospitals have resuscitation champions, it is unknown if hospitals with very active physician or nonphysician champions have higher survival rates for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Methods and Results We surveyed adult hospitals in Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation about resuscitation practices, including about their resuscitation champion. Hospitals were categorized as having a very active physician champion, a very active nonphysician champion, or other (no champion or not very active champion). For each hospital, we calculated risk-standardized survival rates for IHCA during the period of 2016 to 2018 and categorized them into quintiles of risk-standardized survival rates. The association between a hospital's resuscitation champion type and their quintile of survival was evaluated using multivariable hierarchical proportional odds logistic regression. Overall, 192 hospitals (total of 44 477 IHCAs) comprised the study cohort. Risk-standardized survival rates for IHCA varied widely between hospitals (median: 24.7%; range: 9.2%-37.5%). Very active physician champions were present in 29 (15.1%) hospitals, 64 (33.3%) had very active nonphysician champions, and 99 (51.6%) did not have a very active champion. Compared with sites without a very active resuscitation champion, hospitals with a very active physician champion were 4 times more likely to be in a higher survival quintile, even after adjusting for resuscitation practices across hospital groups (adjusted odds ratio [OR], 3.90; 95% CI, 1.39-10.95). In contrast, there was no difference in survival between sites without very active champions and those with very active non-physician champions (adjusted OR, 1.28; 95% CI, 0.62-2.65). Conclusions The background and engagement level of a resuscitation champion is a critical factor in a hospital's survival outcomes for IHCA.

Importance: Survival after in-hospital cardiac arrest depends on 2 distinct phases: responsiveness and quality of the hospital code team (ie, acute resuscitation phase) and intensive and specialty care expertise (ie, postresuscitation phase). Understanding the association of these 2 phases with overall survival has implications for design of in-hospital cardiac arrest quality measures., Objective: To determine whether hospital-level rates of acute resuscitation survival and postresuscitation survival are associated with overall risk-standardized survival to discharge for in-hospital cardiac arrest., Design, Settings, and Participants: This observational cohort study included 86 426 patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest from January 1, 2015, through December 31, 2018, recruited from 290 hospitals participating in the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry., Exposures: Risk-adjusted rates of acute resuscitation survival, defined as return of spontaneous circulation for at least 20 minutes, and postresuscitation survival, defined as survival to discharge among patients achieving return of spontaneous circulation., Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was overall risk-standardized survival rate (RSSR) for in-hospital cardiac arrest calculated using a previously validated model. The correlation between a hospital's overall RSSR and risk-adjusted rates of acute resuscitation and postresuscitation survival were examined., Results: Of 86 426 patients with in-hospital cardiac arrest, the median age was 67.0 years (interquartile range [IQR], 56.0-76.0 years); 50 665 (58.6%) were men, and 71 811 (83.1%) had an initial nonshockable cardiac arrest rhythm. The median RSSR was 25.1% (IQR, 21.9%-27.7%). The median risk-adjusted acute resuscitation survival was 72.4% (IQR, 67.9%-76.9%), and risk-adjusted postresuscitation survival was 34.0% (IQR, 31.5%-37.7%). Although a hospital's RSSR was correlated with survival during both phases, the correlation with postresuscitation survival (ρ, 0.90; P < .001) was stronger compared with the correlation with acute resuscitation survival (ρ, 0.50; P < .001). Of note, there was no correlation between risk-adjusted acute resuscitation survival and postresuscitation survival (ρ, 0.09; P = .11). Compared with hospitals in the lowest RSSR quartile, hospitals in the highest RSSR quartile had higher rates of acute resuscitation survival (75.4% in quartile 4 vs 66.8% in quartile 1; P < .001) and postresuscitation survival (40.3% in quartile 4 vs 28.7% in quartile 1; P < .001), but the magnitude of difference was larger with postresuscitation survival., Conclusions and Relevance: The findings suggest that hospitals that excel in overall in-hospital cardiac arrest survival, in general, excel in either acute resuscitation or postresuscitation care but not both; efforts to strengthen postresuscitation care may offer additional opportunities to improve in-hospital cardiac arrest survival.

Background: The Good Outcome Following Attempted Resuscitation (GO-FAR) Score uses pre-arrest factors to predict survival after In-Hospital Cardiac Arrest (IHCA) with minimal neurological dysfunction, (cerebral performance category (CPC) ≤1). Moderate neurological dysfunction (CPC ≤2) may be a more acceptable outcome., Objective: To predict survival after IHCA with mild or moderate neurological dysfunction based on pre-arrest factors., Methods: 52,468 patients with IHCA from 2012-2017. Data was divided into training (44%), testing (22%), and validation (34%) sets. Univariate analysis was used to identify variables with >3% difference in survival with CPC ≤2. These variables carried forward to the multivariate logistic regression model. The most parsimonious model that best classified patients as having a very poor (≤5%), below average (≤10%), average (11%-30%), or above average (>30%) likelihood of survival with CPC ≤2 was chosen., Results: Age >85, admission CPC <2, and non-surgical admission were strongly association with poor survival (-12.1%, -14.4%, and -18%, respectively). Nine variables were included in the logistic regression analysis. The final updated model, GO FAR 2, categorized 6.2% of patients with a very poor predicted survival, 24.8% of patients with a below average predicted survival, and 11.3% with above average predicted survival. The observed survival among those with very poor predicted survival was 4.5%., Conclusion: The GO FAR 2 score provides clinicians with a prognostic estimate of the likelihood of a good outcome after IHCA based on pre-arrest patient factors. Future research is required to validate the GO-FAR 2 score., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

The fundamentals of cardiac resuscitation include the immediate provision of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation combined with rapid defibrillation (as appropriate). These mainstays of therapy set the groundwork for other possible interventions such as medications, advanced airways, extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation, and post-cardiac arrest care, including targeted temperature management, cardiorespiratory support, and percutaneous coronary intervention. Since 2015, an increased number of studies have been published evaluating some of these interventions, requiring a reassessment of their use and impact on survival from cardiac arrest. This 2019 focused update to the American Heart Association advanced cardiovascular life support guidelines summarizes the most recent published evidence for and recommendations on the use of advanced airways, vasopressors, and extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation during cardiac arrest. It includes revised recommendations for all 3 areas, including the choice of advanced airway devices and strategies during cardiac arrest (eg, bag-mask ventilation, supraglottic airway, or endotracheal intubation), the training and retraining required, the administration of standard-dose epinephrine, and the decisions involved in the application of extracorporeal cardiopulmonary resuscitation and its potential impact on cardiac arrest survival.

Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest requires an integrated system of care (chain of survival) between the community elements responding to an event and the healthcare professionals who continue to care for and transport the patient for appropriate interventions. As a result of the dynamic nature of the prehospital setting, coordination and communication can be challenging, and identification of methods to optimize care is essential. This 2019 focused update to the American Heart Association systems of care guidelines summarizes the most recent published evidence for and recommendations on the use of dispatcher-assisted cardiopulmonary resuscitation and cardiac arrest centers. This article includes the revised recommendations that emergency dispatch centers should offer and instruct bystanders in cardiopulmonary resuscitation during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest and that a regionalized approach to post-cardiac arrest care may be reasonable when comprehensive postarrest care is not available at local facilities.

Background: Good outcomes for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) depend on a skilled resuscitation team, prompt initiation of high-quality cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillation, and organisational structures to support IHCA response. We examined the role of nurses in resuscitation, contrasting higher versus lower performing hospitals in IHCA survival., Methods: We conducted a descriptive qualitative study at nine hospitals in the American Heart Association's Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry, purposefully sampling hospitals that varied in geography, academic status, and risk-standardised IHCA survival. We conducted 158 semistructured interviews with nurses, physicians, respiratory therapists, pharmacists, quality improvement staff, and administrators. Qualitative thematic text analysis followed by type-building text analysis identified distinct nursing roles in IHCA care and support for roles., Results: Nurses played three major roles in IHCA response: bedside first responder, resuscitation team member, and clinical or administrative leader. We found distinctions between higher and lower performing hospitals in support for nurses. Higher performing hospitals emphasised training and competency of nurses at all levels; provided organisational flexibility and responsiveness with nursing roles; and empowered nurses to operate at a higher scope of clinical practice (eg, bedside defibrillation). Higher performing hospitals promoted nurses as leaders-administrators supporting nurses in resuscitation care at the institution, resuscitation team leaders during resuscitation and clinical champions for resuscitation care. Lower performing hospitals had more restrictive nurse roles with less emphasis on systematically identifying improvement needs., Conclusion: Hospitals that excelled in IHCA survival emphasised mentoring and empowering front-line nurses and ensured clinical competency and adequate nursing training for IHCA care. Though not proof of causation, nurses appear to be critical to effective IHCA response, and how to support their role to optimise outcomes warrants further investigation., Competing Interests: Competing interests: PC receives funding from the National Institutes of Health and has received consultant funding from the American Heart Association and Optum Rx. BK is a principal investigator or co-investigator on research grants from the NIH, VA HSR&D, the American Heart Association, Apple, Inc, and Toyota. He also receives compensation as Editor-in-Chief of Circulation: Cardiovascular Quality & Outcomes, a journal of the American Heart Association. Finally, he is a co-inventor on U.S. Utility Patent Number US15/356,012 (US20170148158A1) entitled “Automated Analysis of Vasculature in Coronary Angiograms” that uses software technology with signal processing and machine learning to automate the reading of coronary angiograms, held by the University of Michigan. The patent is licensed to AngioInsight, Inc., in which BK holds ownership shares (although it has yet to be funded). None of these are related to the current work., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2019. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Utstein-style reporting templates provide a structured framework with which to compare systems of care for cardiac arrest. The 2004 Utstein reporting template encompassed both out-of-hospital and in-hospital cardiac arrest. A 2015 update of the Utstein template focused on out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, which makes this update of the in-hospital template timely. Representatives of the International Liaison Committee on Resuscitation developed an updated in-hospital Utstein reporting template iteratively by meeting face-to-face, by teleconference, and by online surveys between 2013 and 2018. Data elements were grouped by hospital factors, patient variables, pre-event factors, cardiac arrest and postresuscitation processes, and outcomes. Elements were classified as core or supplemental by use of a modified Delphi process. Variables were described as core if they were considered essential. Core variables should enable reasonable comparisons between systems and are considered essential for quality improvement programs. Together with core variables, supplementary variables are considered useful for research., (Copyright © 2019 European Resuscitation Council, American Heart Association, Inc. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Background: Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is initiated in hospitalized children with bradycardia and poor perfusion. However, their rate of progression to pulseless cardiac arrest despite CPR and the differences in survival compared with initially pulseless arrest are unknown. We examined the prevalence and predictors of survival of children who progress from bradycardia to pulseless in-hospital cardiac arrest despite CPR., Methods: Pediatric patients >30 days and <18 years of age who received CPR at hospitals participating in Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation during 2000 to 2016 were included. Each CPR event was classified as bradycardia with pulse, bradycardia with subsequent pulselessness, and initial pulseless cardiac arrest. We assessed risk-adjusted rates of survival to hospital discharge using multilevel Poisson regression models., Results: Overall, 5592 pediatric patients were treated with CPR, of whom 2799 (50.1%) received CPR for bradycardia with poor perfusion and 2793 (49.9%) for initial pulseless cardiac arrest. Among those with bradycardia, 869 (31.0%, or 15.5% of cohort) became pulseless after a median of 3 minutes of CPR (interquartile range, 1-9 minutes). Rates of survival to discharge were 70.0% (1351 of 1930) for bradycardia with pulse, 30.1% (262 of 869) for bradycardia progressing to pulselessness, and 37.5% (1046 of 2793) for initial pulseless cardiac arrest (P for difference across groups <0.001). Children who became pulseless despite CPR for bradycardia had a 19% lower likelihood (risk ratio, 0.81 [95% CI, 0.70, 0.93]; P=0.004) of surviving to hospital discharge than those who were initially pulseless. Among children who progressed to pulselessness despite CPR for bradycardia, a longer interval between CPR and pulselessness was a predictor of lower survival (reference, <2 minutes; for 2-5 minutes, risk ratio, 0.54 [95% CI, 0.41-0.70]; for >5 minutes, risk ratio, 0.41 [95% CI, 0.32-0.53])., Conclusions: Among hospitalized children in whom CPR is initiated, half have bradycardia with poor perfusion at the initiation of chest compressions, and nearly one-third of these progress to pulseless in-hospital cardiac arrest despite CPR. Survival was significantly lower for children who progress to pulselessness despite CPR compared with those who were initially pulseless. These findings suggest that pediatric patients who lose their pulse despite resuscitation attempts are at particularly high risk and require a renewed focus on postresuscitation care.

What We Already Know About This Topic: Rapid response to witnessed, pulseless cardiac arrest is associated with increased survival., What This Article Tells Us That Is New: Assessment of witnessed, pulseless cardiac arrests occurring at 538 hospitals during a 9-yr period indicates that CPR did not occur immediately at 0 min in 5.7% of patients despite guidelines for instantaneous initiation. Delay in initiation of CPR was associated with significantly decreased survival.Time to initiation of CPR and subsequent time to initiation of administration of defibrillation shock (for shockable arrhythmias) and epinephrine were both associated with reduced patient survival., Background: Because the extent to which delays in initiating cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) versus the time from CPR to defibrillation or epinephrine treatment affects survival remains unknown, it was hypothesized that all three independently decrease survival in in-hospital cardiac arrest., Methods: Witnessed, index cases of cardiac arrest from the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Database occurring between 2000 and 2008 in 538 hospitals were included in this analysis. Multivariable risk-adjusted logistic regression examined the association of time to initiation of CPR and time from CPR to either epinephrine treatment or defibrillation with survival to discharge., Results: In the overall cohort of 57,312 patients, there were 9,802 survivors (17.1%). Times to initiation of CPR greater than 2 min were associated with a survival of 14.7% (91 of 618) as compared with 17.1% (9,711 of 56,694) if CPR was begun in 2 min or less (adjusted odds ratio [95% CI], 0.68 [0.54 to 0.87]; P < 0.002). Times from CPR to either defibrillation or epinephrine treatment of 2 min or less were associated with a survival of 18.0% (7,654 of 42,475), as compared with 15.0% (1,680 of 11,227) for 3 to 5 min (reference, 0 to 2 min; adjusted odds ratios [95% CI], 0.83 [0.78 to 0.88]; P < 0.001), 12.8% (382 of 2,983) for 6 to 8 min (0.67 [0.60 to 0.76], P < 0.001), and 13.7% (86 of 627) for 9 to 11 min (0.54 [0.42 to 0.69], P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Delays in the initiation of CPR and from CPR to defibrillation or epinephrine treatment were each associated with lower survival.

Aim: To examine outcomes associated with intraosseous access route attempt for delivery of medications during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation., Methods: Using data from the Continuous Chest Compression trial, we examined rates of survival to hospital discharge, sustained return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), and survival with favorable neurological function among patients with intraosseous and intravenous access attempts after adjusting for age, sex, initial rhythm, bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation, public location, witnessed status, EMS response and trial randomization cluster., Results: Among 19,731 patients, intraosseous access was attempted in 3068 patients and intravenous access in 16,663 patients respectively. Patients in whom intraosseous access was attempted were younger, more often female, and had marginally faster times to initial access and to initial drug administration. Unadjusted outcomes were significantly lower in patients with attempted intraosseous access compared with intravenous access: (4.6% vs. 5.7%, p = 0.01) for survival to discharge, (17.9% vs. 23.5%, p < 0.001) for sustained ROSC and (2.8% vs. 4.2%, p < 0.001) for survival with favorable neurological function. After adjustment, there were no differences in hospital survival (OR, 0.88, 95% CI 0.72-1.09, p = 0.24) or survival with favorable neurological function (OR, 0.87, 95% CI 0.67-1.12, p = 0.29) in patients with intraosseous access attempt (vs. intravenous access). However, intraosseous access continued to associate with lower rates of sustained ROSC (OR, 0.80, 95% CI 0.71 - 0.89, p < 0.001)., Conclusions: Among patients with OHCA, intraosseous access attempt was associated with worse ROSC rates but no difference in survival. Further studies are necessary to elucidate the optimal access route among OHCA patients., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)

Antiarrhythmic medications are commonly administered during and immediately after a ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest. However, it is unclear whether these medications improve patient outcomes. This 2018 American Heart Association focused update on advanced cardiovascular life support guidelines summarizes the most recent published evidence for and recommendations on the use of antiarrhythmic drugs during and immediately after shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest. This article includes the revised recommendation that providers may consider either amiodarone or lidocaine to treat shock-refractory ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest.

Background: Despite the high incidence of in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) in US hospitals, the prognosis and end-of-life decision-making patterns of a patient with a recurrent IHCA are unknown., Methods: Within Get-With-The-Guidelines-Resuscitation, we identified 192,250 patients from 711 hospitals with an IHCA from 2000 to 2015. Patients were categorized as having no recurrent IHCA (only 1 event), recurrent IHCA (≥2 IHCAs), and recurrent out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA), defined as an IHCA after an OHCA. Using multivariable hierarchical logistic regression, rates of survival to discharge and favorable neurological survival (mild or no disability) between the 3 groups were compared. Rates of de novo "do not attempt resuscitation" (DNAR) and withdrawal of care orders among successfully resuscitated patients were also evaluated., Results: Overall, 165,446 (86.1%) had no recurrent IHCA, 23,643 (12.3%) had recurrent IHCA, and 3162 (1.6%) had recurrent OHCA. Compared with patients with no recurrent IHCA, patients with recurrent IHCA were less than half as likely to survive to discharge (12.7% vs 22.1%; adjusted OR: 0.46 [0.44-0.48], P < .001) and have favorable neurological survival (7.0% vs 13.1%; adjusted OR: 0.44 [0.42-0.47], P < .001). Compared with patients with recurrent OHCA, patients with recurrent IHCA also had lower rates of survival to discharge (12.7% vs 16.1%; adjusted OR: 0.81 [0.71-0.94], P = .005) and favorable neurological survival (7.0% vs 8.9%; adjusted OR: 0.66 [0.54-0.81], P < .001). Despite worse survival outcomes, patients with recurrent IHCA were least likely to adopt DNAR orders within the first 24 hours after successful resuscitation compared with patients with no recurrent IHCA or recurrent OHCA (17.2% vs 18.9% and 26.6%, respectively) or withdraw care at any time (17.7% vs 24.4% and 31.2%, respectively)., Conclusions: Nearly 1 in 8 patients with an IHCA has a recurrent IHCA, and these patients have worse outcomes than patients with only a single IHCA and those with an IHCA after being hospitalized for an OHCA. Despite worse survival, rates of DNAR and withdrawal of care were lowest for patients with recurrent IHCA. These findings provide important prognostic information for clinicians caring for patients with recurrent IHCA and suggest the need to better align resuscitation and end-of-life decisions with patients' prognoses after IHCA., (Copyright © 2018 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Background: In-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA) is common, and outcomes vary substantially across US hospitals, but reasons for these differences are largely unknown. We set out to better understand how top-performing hospitals organize their resuscitation teams to achieve high survival rates for IHCA., Methods: We calculated risk-standardized IHCA survival to discharge rates across American Heart Association Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation registry hospitals between 2012 and 2014. We identified geographically and academically diverse hospitals in the top, middle, and bottom quartiles of survival for IHCA and performed a qualitative study that included site visits with in-depth interviews of clinical and administrative staff at 9 hospitals. With the use of thematic analysis, data were analyzed to identify salient themes of perceived performance by informants., Results: Across 9 hospitals, we interviewed 158 individuals from multiple disciplines including physicians (17.1%), nurses (45.6%), other clinical staff (17.1%), and administration (20.3%). We identified 4 broad themes related to resuscitation teams: (1) team design, (2) team composition and roles, (3) communication and leadership during IHCA, and (4) training and education. Resuscitation teams at top-performing hospitals demonstrated the following features: dedicated or designated resuscitation teams; participation of diverse disciplines as team members during IHCA; clear roles and responsibilities of team members; better communication and leadership during IHCA; and in-depth mock codes., Conclusions: Resuscitation teams at hospitals with high IHCA survival differ from non-top-performing hospitals. Our findings suggest core elements of successful resuscitation teams that are associated with better outcomes and form the basis for future work to improve IHCA., (© 2018 American Heart Association, Inc.)

Purpose: Little is known regarding patterns of resuscitation care in patients with advanced cancer who suffer in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA)., Methods: In the Get With The Guidelines - Resuscitation registry, 47,157 adults with IHCA with and without advanced cancer (defined as the presence of metastatic or hematologic malignancy) were identified at 369 hospitals from April 2006 through June 2010. We compared rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival to discharge between groups using multivariable models. We also compared duration of resuscitation effort and resuscitation quality measures., Results: Overall, 6,585 patients with IHCA (14.0%) had advanced cancer. Patients with advanced cancer had lower multivariable-adjusted rates of ROSC (52.3% [95% CI, 49.5% to 55.3%] v 56.6% [95% CI, 53.8% to 59.5%]; P < .001) and survival to discharge (7.4% [95% CI, 6.6% to 8.4%] v 13.4% [95% CI, 12.1% to 14.8%]; P < .001). Among nonsurvivors who died during resuscitation, patients with advanced cancer had better performance on most resuscitation quality measures. Among patients with ROSC, patients with advanced cancer were made Do Not Attempt Resuscitation (DNAR) more frequently within 48 hours (adjusted relative risk, 1.30 [95% CI, 1.24 to 1.37]; P < .001). Adjustment for DNAR status explained some of the immediate effect of advanced cancer on survival; however, survival remained significantly lower in patients with cancer., Conclusion: Patients with advanced cancer can expect lower survival rates after IHCA compared with those without advanced cancer, and they are more frequently made DNAR within 48 hours of ROSC. These findings have important implications for discussions of resuscitation care wishes with patients and can better inform end-of-life discussions.

Background: The HeartRescue Project is a multistate public health initiative focused on establishing statewide out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) systems of care to improve case capture and OHCA care in the community, by emergency medical services (EMS), and at hospital level., Methods and Results: From 2011 to 2015 in the 5 original HeartRescue states, all adults with EMS-treated OHCA due to a presumed cardiac cause were included. In an adult population of 32.8 million, a total of 64 988 OHCAs-including 10 046 patients with a bystander-witnessed OHCA with a shockable rhythm-were treated by 330 EMS agencies. From 2011 to 2015, the case-capture rate for all-rhythm OHCA increased from an estimated 39.0% (n=6762) to 89.2% (n=16 103; P <0.001 for trend). Overall survival to hospital discharge was 11.4% for all rhythms and 34.0% in the subgroup with bystander-witnessed OHCA with a shockable rhythm. We observed modest temporal increases in bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (41.8-43.5%, P <0.001 for trend) and bystander automated external defibrillator application (3.2-5.6%, P <0.001 for trend) in the all-rhythm group, although there were no temporal changes in survival. There were marked all-rhythm survival differences across the 5 states (8.0-16.1%, P <0.001) and across participating EMS agencies (2.7-26.5%, P <0.001)., Conclusions: In the initial 5 years, the HeartRescue Project developed a population-based OHCA registry and improved statewide case-capture rates and some processes of care, although there were no early temporal changes in survival. The observed survival variation across states and EMS systems presents a future challenge to elucidate the characteristics of high-performing systems with the goal of improving OHCA care and survival., (© 2017 The Authors. Published on behalf of the American Heart Association, Inc., by Wiley.)

Background: Medical Emergency Teams (METs) are designed to respond to signs of clinical decline in order to prevent cardiopulmonary arrest and reduce mortality. The frequency of MET activation prior to pediatric cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is unknown., Methods: Within the Get With The Guidelines-Resuscitation Registry (GWTG-R), we identified children with bradycardia or cardiac arrest requiring CPR on the general inpatient or telemetry floors from 2007 to 2013. We examined the frequency with which CPR outside the ICU was preceded by a MET evaluation. In cases where MET evaluation did not occur, we examined the frequency of severely abnormal vital signs at least 1hour prior to CPR that could have prompted a MET evaluation but did not., Results: Of 215 children from 23 hospitals requiring CPR, 48 (22.3%) had a preceding MET evaluation. Children with MET evaluation prior to CPR were older (6.8±6.5 vs. 3.1±4.7 years of age, p<0.001) and were more likely to have metabolic/electrolyte abnormalities (18.8% vs. 5.4%, p=0.006), sepsis (16.7% vs. 4.8%, p=0.01), or malignancy (22.9% vs. 5.4%, p<0.001). Among patients who did not have a MET called and with information on vital signs, 55/141 (39.0%) had at least one abnormal vital sign that could have triggered a MET., Conclusion: The majority of pediatric patients requiring CPR for bradycardia or cardiac arrest do not have a preceding MET evaluation despite a significant number meeting criteria that could have triggered the MET. This suggests opportunities to more efficiently use MET teams in routine care., (Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.)