RESEARCH looking at the impact of volunteer responders attending cardiac arrests has found that patients are 37% more likely to survive than when attended by emergency services alone.
A smartphoneactivated volunteer responder (SAVR) program utilising the GoodSAM app works by alerting nearby registered volunteer responders to attend outofhospital cardiac arrests.
When the ambulance service receives a call, it sends out emergency medical services (EMS) and also alerts nearby SAVRs, if appropriate (dangerous or potentially traumatising cases are not eligible for SAVR attendance).
SAVRs may be health professionals or other suitably qualified adults who can commence cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) or use an automatic external defibrillator (AED) if they arrive before emergency services, and assist if needed when emergency services arrive.
Using data from Victoria, where the program has been operating since 2018, the researchers looked at the likelihood of patient survival, bystander CPR and bystander defibrillation for cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in which at least one SAVR arrived before EMS, compared with cases in which EMS arrived first.
Of around 9,000 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest included in the analysis, almost 1,200 had been attended by SAVRs, of which around half arrived before EMS and half arrived after.
They found that when the SAVR arrived before EMS, the odds of a patient's survival to hospital discharge were increased by 37%.
Patients were around seven times more likely to receive bystander CPR, and 16 times more likely to receive bystander defibrillation when attended by SAVRs before EMS arrived.
"Smartphone-activated volunteer responder programs could increase the likelihood of survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest if responders arrive before emergency medical services," concluded the authors.
"Volunteer response times should be improved, and safeguards developed for limiting the exposure of volunteer responders to distressing cases, particularly for responders arriving after paramedics," they added.
Read the paper HERE. KB
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