Diagnosis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest by emergency medical dispatch: A diagnostic systematic review

Abstract

Introduction: Cardiac arrest is a time-sensitive condition requiring urgent intervention. Prompt and accurate recognition of cardiac arrest by emergency medical dispatchers at the time of the emergency call is a critical early step in cardiac arrest management allowing for initiation of dispatcher-assisted bystander CPR and appropriate and timely emergency response. The overall accuracy of dispatchers in recognizing cardiac arrest is not known. It is also not known if there are specific call characteristics that impact the ability to recognize cardiac arrest. Methods: We performed a systematic review to examine dispatcher recognition of cardiac arrest as well as to identify call characterist..