Do health care professionals report sudden cardiac arrest better than laymen?
Castrn M; Kuisma M; Serlachius J; Skrifvars M Helsinki City Emergency Medical Services, Agricolankatu 15, 00530, Helsinki, Finland. mcastren@kolumbus.fi OBJECTIVE: To compare the emergency calls made by health care providers and by laymen reporting a non-traumatic cardiac arrest, and to evaluate the handling of these calls by dispatchers. METHODS: The study was conducted prospectively over a 1-year period in 1996. The callers (N=328) where divided in to three groups based on profession: I, doctors and nurses (N=33); II, other health care providers (N=19); and III, laymen (N=276). Main outcome measures where the information given by the caller, use of the dispatching protocol, recognition of the cardiac arrest, and survival to hospital. RESULTS: Doctors and nurses told the dispatcher spontaneously what had happened in 67% of the calls when total strangers to the patient told it in 72%. Group I gave no information about the vital signs in 24% of the calls, group II in 0% and group III in
