Potential cardiac arrest – an observational study of pre-hospital medical response

Abstract

Objectives: A previous study showed that Norwegian GPs on call attended around 40% of out-of-hospital medical emergencies. We wanted to investigate the alarms of prehospital medical resources and the doctors' responses in situations of potential cardiac arrests. Design and setting: A three-month prospective data collection was undertaken from three emergency medical communication centres, covering a population of 816,000 residents. From all emergency medical events, a sub-group of patients who received resuscitation, or who were later pronounced dead at site, was selected for further analysis. Results: 5,105 medical emergencies involving 5,180 patients were included, of which 193 met the inclusion criteria. The GP on call was alarmed in 59 %, and an anaesthesiologist in 43 % of the cases. When alarmed, a GP attended in 84 % and an anaesthesiologist in 87 % of the cases. Among the patients who died, the GP on call was alarmed most frequently. Conclusion: Events involving patients in need of resuscitation are rare, but medical response in the form of the attendance of prehospital personnel is significant. Norwegian GPs have a higher call-out rate for patients in severe situations where resuscitation was an option of treatment, compared with other “red-response” situations.

Key Points

• This study investigates alarms of and call-outs among GPs and anaesthesiologists on call, in the most acute clinical situations:

• Medical emergencies involving patients in need of resuscitation were rare.

• The health care contribution by pre-hospital personnel being called out was significant.

• Compared with other acute situations, the GP had a higher attendance rate to patients in life-threatening situations.

Keywords:

• Emergency medical services
• general practice
• general practitioner
• Norway
• pre-hospital emergency care
• primary health care
• resuscitation

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of the article.