Load and go for cardiac arrest

[medicaltransient]

I work for an EMS agency that still practices medicine from a decade ago and I am trying to convince my boss that we should not be pushing people out the door when we can be performing compressions and cardioverting. I have been collecting research to show him please help me with my collection. If you know of any studies please post or point me that way. Have a wonderful day!

 

[teedubbyaw]

Bring it up with your medical director.

 

[medicaltransient]

I have never met him and don't expect anything more than a signature from the guy.

 

[gotbeerz001]

*****

 

[reaper]

Just tell them to follow AHA guidelines. Load and go went out the window years ago. All the research shows better outcomes by working them in place.

 

[teedubbyaw]

I have never met him and don't expect anything more than a signature from the guy.

Is that your implication? My director is a phone call away, as most should be. You're practicing under their license and if there's a problem, their ears should be open.

 

[redundantbassist]

I bet bloodletting is under the ALS scope of practice with your agency too. Seriously, you should bring it up to someone- your protocols are killing people.

 

[NomadicMedic]

I bet bloodletting is under the ALS scope of practice with your agency too. Seriously, you should bring it up to someone- your protocols are keeping dead people dead.

Fixed that for ya.

 

[redundantbassist]

Fixed that for ya.

True...true

 

[TomB]

I work for an EMS agency that still practices medicine from a decade ago and I am trying to convince my boss that we should not be pushing people out the door when we can be performing compressions and cardioverting. I have been collecting research to show him please help me with my collection. If you know of any studies please post or point me that way. Have a wonderful day!

This is what happens in organizations that don't measure outcomes. There's nothing to prove that the system is underperforming. So now you have to show that a change in practice is warranted. It would be better if you knew your survival rate for witnessed VF was 15% or 20%. Then a reasonable person would ask why survival is 2 to 3 times higher in other EMS systems. You could go about discovering best practices in places that can prove they're doing a good job. One of the things they do is work the arrest on scene until ROSC. Ironically, many EMS systems then take a 10 minute "time out" in case the patient re-arrests. It also gives them a chance to attach pulse oximetry, get a full set of vital signs, including a temp, a 12-lead ECG, re-assess the airway, and set the VF/VT alarm. Some EMS systems aren't even trying to save the patient because they don't know they can.