Is Your EMS System Doing Its Best??

Every now and then, we hear news-worthy stories of EMT’s, firefighters, and policemen who have saved a life by being in the right place at the right time. Virtually no other condition is as time sensitive and EMS dependant as cardiac arrest. The quicker CPR is performed, the more likely the patient is to survive.

But why is this so rare? What gets these heroes to be in the ‘right place at the right time’?  Answer: The Pre-hospital System.  The correct orchestration of bystander CPR and the application of an automated external defibrillator (AED) shortly after a cardiac arrest event are by far the two most effective and simple interventions needed to save a life, yet most urban centers across the United States have pitifully few people performing timely bystander CPR, and have disparate and abysmal cardiac arrest survival rates.

These cardiac arrest ‘saves’ are celebrated not only for the effort of skill and caring our heroes in EMS put in every day when they go to work, but because as it currently stands, a cardiac arrest survival in the field is an extreme rarity.

THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE THE CASE.

            The ‘system’ and ‘survival statistics’ are not immutable. Over and over again, it has been shown that EMS systems can be changed to meaningfully improve pre-hospital cardiac arrest survival (see: Seattle, Las Vegas, Phoenix) – and these are not just small improvements, but improvements on the order of 10-40%!  I challenge you to find another medical intervention with such a large, favorable, and impactful improvement rate.

            So, why is this not already the case you ask??  Like everything else, it takes knowledge, awareness of the situation, effort, and money.  However, as approximately 70% of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and are suffered family members or friends, it seems like a fairly good investment, no?

So…..do you know how your EMS System is doing?  What are you or your family member’s chance of survival if they have a sudden cardiac arrest in your community? 0%? 5%? 10%?

This is not the time to sit back and assume the ambulance will be there when you need it, and it is not the time to go to your job an EMT, paramedic, or physician and accept the status quo – THIS IS TOO IMPORTANT. THESE ARE THE LIVES OF YOUR FAMILY AND FRIENDS. THIS IS YOUR LIFE. Get active. Learn the data. Push for improvement. What are you going to do about this?