Pediatric Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest: The Role of the Telecommunicator in Recognition of Cardiac Arrest and Delivery of Bystander Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation.

Background: Telecommunicator CPR (T-CPR), whereby emergency dispatch facilitates cardiac arrest recognition and coaches CPR over the telephone, is an important strategy to increase early recognition and bystander CPR in adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA). Little is known about this treatment strategy in the pediatric population. We investigated the role of T-CPR and related performance among pediatric OHCA.

Determining witnessed status for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest.

Objective: Witnessed status is considered a core variable in reporting cardiac arrest data and can be ascertained from either the emergency dispatch recording or the pre-hospital record. The purpose of this study is to compare and assess the quality and consistency of these information sources.

Methods: This retrospective analysis included 1896 cases of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest occurring between September 1, 2012 and December 31, 2014.