Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer is associated with improved survival from in-hospital ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest.

Objective: To determine if the appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer improves survival to discharge from in-hospital ventricular fibrillation/pulseless ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest.
Design: A 22-month prospective study.
Setting: A 1100-bed teaching hospital.
Subjects: All inpatients suffering ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia cardiorespiratory arrests.
Interventions: Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer at start of study, who introduced coordinated resuscitation training for all staff.
Main Outcome: Survival to discharge.
Result: Improvement in survival to discharge of 20-75% (P<0.03, Spearman Rank Correlation test).
Conclusion: Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer is associated with improved survival to discharge in ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in-hospital cardiac arrest.