An Educational Program to Improve Cardiac Arrest Diagnostic Accuracy of Ambulance Telecommunicators

Cardiac Arrest Clinical Trial

Official title:

Multi-Center Implementation of an Educational Program to Improve the Cardiac Arrest Diagnostic Accuracy of Ambulance Telecommunicators and Survival Outcomes for Sudden Cardiac Arrest Victims

Clinical Trial Details — Status: Active, not recruiting

Administrative data

• NCT number: NCT03894059
• Other study ID #: CRRF 1298
• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Start date: December 14, 2020
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2025

Study information

• Verified date: April 2024
• Source: Ottawa Hospital Research Institute
• Contact: n/a
• Is FDA regulated: No
• Study type: Observational

Clinical Trial Summary

Cardiac arrest is the number one cause of death in Canada. It is often the first symptom of cardiac disease for the victims. Eighty-five percent of victims collapse in their own home. Fifty percent collapse in the presence of a family member. Bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) can improve the chance to survive a cardiac arrest by three to four times, but needs to be started quickly. In most communities, less than 30% of victims receive CPR before the ambulance arrives. Currently, only 8% of cardiac arrest victims can leave the hospital alive.

Many things have been tried to improve the number of times people do CPR. So far, the only thing that really increased the number of times that someone did CPR is when 9-1-1 attendants started to give CPR instructions to callers over the phone. The only problem is that about 25% of cardiac arrest victims gasp for air in the first few minutes. This can fool the 9-1-1 callers and attendants into thinking that the victim is still alive.

The investigators have looked at all the studies on how to help 9-1-1 attendants to recognize abnormal breathing over the phone. The investigators have also learned what should be taught after finishing a large survey with 9-1-1 attendants from across Canada. This survey was done with the help of psychologists and other education experts. It measured the impact of attitudes, social pressures, and 9-1-1 attendants' perceived control over their ability to recognize abnormal breathing and cardiac arrest. Then the investigators developed a teaching tool which helped Ottawa 9-1-1 attendants recognize abnormal breathing. When they could do that, they could also recognize more cardiac arrest.

The main goal of this project is to use the tool developed in Ottawa in more centres to help 9-1-1 attendants save the lives of even more cardiac arrest victims across Canada.

Recruitment information / eligibility

• Status: Active, not recruiting
• Enrollment: 12224
• Est. completion date: December 31, 2025
• Est. primary completion date: December 31, 2025
• Accepts healthy volunteers: No
• Gender: All
• Age group: 16 Years and older

Eligibility

Inclusion Criteria:

We will enroll ALL patients with prehospital cardiac arrest (absence of a detectable pulse, unresponsiveness, and apnea):

• That are of presumed cardiac origin;

• That occur in the catchment area of our participating sites; and

• For which resuscitation is attempted by a bystander and/or the emergency responders.

Exclusion Criteria:

• Cardiac arrest witnessed by paramedics after their arrival (no opportunity for bystander intervention);

• Patients younger than 16 years of age (cardiac arrest usually respiratory and rare in this population);

• Patients who are "obviously dead";

• Trauma victims, including hanging and burns; or

• Patients with cardiac arrest clearly of other non-cardiac origin including drug overdose, carbon monoxide poisoning, drowning, exsanguination, electrocution, asphyxia, hypoxia related to respiratory disease, cerebrovascular accident and documented terminal illness.

Related Conditions & MeSH terms

• Cardiac Arrest
• Cardiac Arrest, Sudden
• Cardiopulmonary Arrest
• Death, Sudden
• Death, Sudden, Cardiac
• Heart Arrest
• Heart Arrest, Out-Of-Hospital
• Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest

Intervention

Other:
• Educational Intervention
Additional training provided to ambulance telecommunicators in participating sites to help increase recognition of agonal breathing in the presence of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Locations

Country	Name	City	State
Canada	Emergency Medical Care Inc.	Dartmouth	Nova Scotia

Sponsors (8)

Lead Sponsor	Collaborator
Ottawa Hospital Research Institute	Alberta Health services, BC Emergency Health Services, Emergency Health Services Nova Scotia, Health PEI, Medacom Atlantic, Ontario Ministry of Health and Long Term Care, Providence Health Care, British Columbia

Country where clinical trial is conducted

Canada, 

Outcome

Type	Measure	Description	Time frame	Safety issue
Primary	Overall Survival	Accessing hospital medical records or coroner's reports, assess survival of cardiac arrest victim as being discharged alive from hospital.	Change between 12 month period before and after delivery of additional education to ambulance telecommunicators
Secondary	Community Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation Rate	The first member of the emergency response team to arrive at the scene will document whether or not chest compressions have been initiated by someone prior to the arrival of the emergency team.	Change between 12 month period before and after delivery of additional education to ambulance telecommunicators
Secondary	Telecommunication-assisted CPR instructions rate	By reviewing audio recordings, determine the cases where telecommunicator assistance led to delivery of chest compressions	Change between 12 month period before and after delivery of additional education to ambulance telecommunicators
Secondary	Presence of agonal breathing	Document the presence or absence of agonal breathing through review of audio recording.	Change between 12 month period before and after delivery of additional education to ambulance telecommunicators
Secondary	Cardiac arrest recognition rate		at time of event
Secondary	Time intervals	call receipt to recognition of cardiac arrest, time to CPR instructions initiated	Change between 12 month period before and after delivery of additional education to ambulance telecommunicators