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

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.