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ARTICLE |

Emergency Medical Services: Factors Associated With Poor Survival FREE

William H. Bickell, MD
[+] Author Affiliations

Edited by Drummond Rennie, MD, Deputy Editor (West), and Margaret A. Winker, MD, Senior Editor.


JAMA. 1994;272(20):1573-1573. doi:10.1001/jama.1994.03520200029016
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To the Editor.  —In their article, Dr Lombardi and colleagues1 examined out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survival in New York City and found a dismal 1.4% overall rate. This well-designed study clearly documents a breakdown in the American Heart Association's "chain of survival," including delays in early access, initiation of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), time to defibrillation, and time to advanced life support.2 However, even when the survival analysis focused on patients with an optimal prognosis (such as those with a witnessed arrest in whom the presenting cardiac rhythm was ventricular fibrillation and bystanders provided CPR within 4 minutes), the observed survival was still far below the survival reported by other emergency medical services (EMS) systems.2 Lombardi et al rejected the notion that the low survival rates may be related to EMS system performance. Indeed, they speculated that there were "certain sociodemographic features common to victims of cardiac arrest in

REFERENCES

Lombardi G, Gallagher J, Gennis P.  Outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in New York City: the Pre-Hospital Arrest Survival Evaluation (PHASE) study. JAMA . 1994;;271:678-683.
Cummins RO, Ornato JP, Thies W, Pepe PE, the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiac Care Committee's Subcommittee on Advanced Cardiac Life Support.  Improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest: the 'chain' of survival concept. Circulation . 1991;;83:1832-1847.
Becker L, Ostrander N, Barrett J, et al.  Outcome of CPR in a large metropolitan area: where are the survivors? Ann Emerg Med . 1991;;20:355-361.
Falk JL.  Medical direction of emergency medical service systems: a full-time commitment whose time has come. Crit Care Med . 1993;;1259-1260.
Pepe PE, Mattox KL, Duke JH, Fisher PB, Prentice FD.  The effect of full-time specialized physician supervision on the success of a large urban emergency medical services systems. Crit Care Med . 1993;;21:1259-1260.
EMS Authority.  Pinellas County, Florida. Pinellas EMS Newslett Rev . 1993;;1:1.

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Country-Specific Mortality and Growth Failure in Infancy and Yound Children and Association With Material Stature

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Lombardi G, Gallagher J, Gennis P.  Outcome of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in New York City: the Pre-Hospital Arrest Survival Evaluation (PHASE) study. JAMA . 1994;;271:678-683.
Cummins RO, Ornato JP, Thies W, Pepe PE, the American Heart Association Emergency Cardiac Care Committee's Subcommittee on Advanced Cardiac Life Support.  Improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest: the 'chain' of survival concept. Circulation . 1991;;83:1832-1847.
Becker L, Ostrander N, Barrett J, et al.  Outcome of CPR in a large metropolitan area: where are the survivors? Ann Emerg Med . 1991;;20:355-361.
Falk JL.  Medical direction of emergency medical service systems: a full-time commitment whose time has come. Crit Care Med . 1993;;1259-1260.
Pepe PE, Mattox KL, Duke JH, Fisher PB, Prentice FD.  The effect of full-time specialized physician supervision on the success of a large urban emergency medical services systems. Crit Care Med . 1993;;21:1259-1260.
EMS Authority.  Pinellas County, Florida. Pinellas EMS Newslett Rev . 1993;;1:1.
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To understand the clinical management of acute heart failure syndromes.
Accreditation Information The American Medical Association is accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education to provide continuing medical education for physicians.
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