people die each year in the U.S. from Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA).
of people who experience SCA will die.
For every minute that passes after SCA until CPR and defibrillation, the chances of survival
Depending on where they live in the country, a person’s chance of survival following SCA may fluctuate by
The national SCA survival rate has not significantly changed in
When sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) occurs, the clock starts ticking. Without a swift, coordinated set of actions, SCA can quickly lead to death. The “chain of survival” relies on the efforts of bystanders, telecommunicators, public safety, EMS providers and hospital personnel.
But it is even more than that. It takes a system to save a victim. Community support and leadership enable a coordinated response so the chain of survival can act together to save lives.
The national SCA survival rate is less than 12 percent, but in some communities that number is up to three times higher.
In 2011, the Medtronic Foundation recognized this and seized the opportunity to make a difference through the development of the HeartRescue Project. HeartRescue supports communities of all shapes and sizes to raise SCA survival rates by developing and expanding community response systems.
The HeartRescue Project and its partners have worked tirelessly to translate science into coordinated community programs and action; measure and improve; and collaborate to make change.
Saving lives from SCA since 2011, HeartRescue and its partners are shaping the future of resuscitation – to ensure the beat goes on.
The Resuscitation Academy’s resources and training programs for EMS professionals and leaders are helping close the gap in survival rates across communities.
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Systems that track and measure performance can achieve better outcomes and continually improve.
CARES, the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, gives communities access to a common platform to measure and benchmark efforts. With CARES, communities can benchmark their performance year after year and compare it to other systems. This leads to quality improvement, which leads to more lives being saved. CARES continues to grow as more communities recognize that measurement is fundamental to improvement.
The Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) helps communities measure performance and identity how to improve cardiac arrest survival rates.
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Through collaborative efforts, Maryland has achieved a statewide registry of cardiac arrest data for 6 million people.
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Bystanders can play a critical role when someone suffers SCA. A bystander performing CPR before emergency services arrive can triple the victim’s chance of survival. However, in most communities, less than half of SCA cases receive any bystander CPR. HeartRescue and its partners are working to change that by engaging communities with training, education and support.
This includes training dispatchers in telecommunicator CPR (T-CPR), so that they can most effectively assist untrained callers in providing CPR until EMS arrives to provide defibrillation and other vital interventions.
Telecommunicators are a critical link in the chain of survival. Their ability to rapidly identify someone in cardiac arrest, quickly start T-CPR and rapidly dispatch responders, all contribute to increased survival from this event.Julie Buckingham, Program Director, RQI Telecommunicator CPR RQI Partners, LLC
Illinois HeartRescue’s program engages leaders from schools, churches and sports teams to teach the community CPR awareness and skills.
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Arizona’s SHARE Program works to improve bystander CPR rates through training, public service announcements, resources and tools.
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EMS providers are involved in treating most out-of-hospital cardiac arrests each year. Improving the response at the EMS level – from high-performance CPR to use of automatic external defibrillators (AEDs) – can lead to better patient outcomes. HeartRescue and its partners, including many leading EMS organizations, are working to train and support EMS providers to improve care and responses to SCA.
I’m trained in high-performance CPR, and it really makes a difference in keeping the person alive until shocks and medicine kick in.EMS Provider
North Carolina fire and rescue teams participated in comprehensive trainings on performing basic life support until EMS arrival.
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A Washington state program provides a blueprint for communities, producing a consistent, high-level of resuscitation care across the state.
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Global Medical Response’s national presence helps it scale resuscitation program improvement across the U.S.
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While the actions of bystanders and EMS are critical to restore a heartbeat after SCA, the patient’s best chance of a positive outcome is dependent upon the care they receive at the hospital. HeartRescue partners are implementing proven survival strategies and redefining the future of emergency care with innovative programs that show promising results.
Patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest need a lot of care in the hospital. This includes intensive care, medications, hypothermia, and often cardiac catheterization. Telecommunicators, bystanders, EMS first responders, and hospital providers each play an integral role in saving a life from cardiac arrest.Mickey Eisenberg, MD, MPH, PhD
Minnesota’s Center for Resuscitation Medicine speeds up the delivery of ECLS and ECMO services to patients, significantly shaving the time from the 911 call to care delivery.
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Because SCA continues to challenge communities and health care systems, it inspires out-of-the-box thinking to develop new and innovative approaches to address it. From using virtual reality to provide CPR training to phone apps that alert nearby volunteer responders to an SCA case, innovators are continually exploring new and groundbreaking ways to save more lives.
Pennsylvania leverages innovative technology to improve healthcare provider CPR.
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The Verified Responder Program alerts off-duty responders in five states to suspected SCA incidents in public and private locations to begin care before EMS arrives.
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Sudden cardiac arrest doesn’t discriminate, but there are disparities in resuscitation across communities – often due to local factors. Both large urban communities and rural areas have historically reported sobering SCA survival rates and poor outcomes. There are also racial and ethnic disparities in resuscitation.
In partnership with local leaders, HeartRescue partners are working to overturn these disparities and improve care, often championing innovations to improve care in systems with big implementation challenges.
Chicago and Detroit restructured their approaches to treating OHCA and have seen marked improvements in survival.
Montana equips law enforcement officers with CPR training and AEDs, leading to lives saved across the state.
Texas evaluates disparities in SCA incidence, care and outcomes, uncovering opportunities for improvement.
Alaska’s statewide initiative uses both innovative and practical approaches to enhance resuscitation care.
Just as SCA survival relies on many links in a chain, progress in moving the resuscitation field forward requires strong collaboration and partnerships. HeartRescue partners have built a strong network of people, skills and expertise that are saving lives and improving systems. Each partner’s unique insights and experiences power new programs and innovations. Each story of survival finds its way back to these partners and people. The beat goes on because of our partners, their partners and the lives that they save.
The responders saved my husband’s life. Plus, the dispatcher coached me in CPR. I felt like part of the team, and together we brought him back.Family member of SCA survivor
Overview
Alaska HeartRescue has worked to engage the state’s diverse communities to establish a statewide registry for capturing care and outcome for cardiac arrest. With this infrastructure, Alaska has deployed a range of programs to improve resuscitation care including advanced CPR training; a streamlined telephone CPR program that has enabled an increase in early arrest identification and bystander CPR; and evaluation and refining the role of mechanical CPR.
Websites
Anchorage Fire Department
Alaska Department of Health, Division of Public Health, Office of EMS
Overview
Arizona’s efforts include: The SHARE program that promotes a comprehensive, standardized system of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest care throughout the state, encompassing all links in the chain of survival; The University of Arizona is a leader in compression-only CPR research and the public health approach to SCA; Hospitals participating in the Arizona Cardiac Center Consortium have seen significant improvement in SCA survival rates.
Websites
www.azshare.gov
Overview
The Illinois Heart Rescue (IL Heart) collaborative brings together recognized experts in community engagement, epidemiology, public health, emergency medical services, education, emergency medicine, neurology and cardiology to improve statewide outcomes of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Through community participatory strategies and empowerment models, IL Heart maximizes community input and participation in all IL Heart activities, particularly from vulnerable, rural, and racial and ethnic minority groups in target geographical areas.
Websites
www.illinoisheartrescue.com
Overview
The HeartRescue initiative builds upon Maine’s HeartSafe Communities Program. Maine leadership works collaboratively with New England partner states of Vermont and New Hampshire to measure and improve resuscitation, with implementation of high-performance EMS CPR across the state as an area of focus. The 3-state collaboration enables better access to training resources and the ability to implement and evaluate programs on a larger scale.
Websites
State of Maine Department of Public Safety – Emergency Medical Services
Overview
Maryland is working to enhance the response to, and care of, patients with sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Highlights include the Maryland Resuscitation Academy; a statewide effort to teach and institute High Performance CPR for EMS; a Cardiac Arrest Steering Committee that coordinates community, dispatch and EMS response to cardiac arrest; all EMS jurisdictions in Maryland providing 911 response using one electronic Patient Care Report; and participation in CARES by all state EMS agencies.
Websites
Maryland Resuscitation Academy
MIEMSS
Overview
SaveMiHeart utilizes the Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival (CARES) to measure and report important cardiac arrest epidemiology, treatment parameters, and outcomes. SaveMiHeart works with communities and health care providers to implement evidence-based solutions that will measurably improve survival. Highlights include data collection covering approximately 6.2 million residents and partnership with the University of Michigan to train all students, faculty and staff on Hands Only CPR.
Websites
SaveMiHeart
Overview
The Minnesota Resuscitation Consortium is a partnership of organizations and acute care physicians focused on providing a new platform of treatments and technologies to deploy and evaluate advances in the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest more rapidly. The MRC has facilitated collaborations to improve patient care including the development, evaluation and advancement of novel life-saving technologies; development of a bystander CPR training registry and an AED registry; and formation of EMS and cardiology committees to develop standardized best practices for cardiac arrest management and care.
Websites
MN Resuscitation Consortium
University of Minnesota, Cardiovascular Division
Minnesota Department of Health
MRC Bystander Site
Overview
Montana is working to increase survival of cardiac patients through development and implementation of high-performance cardiac care systems. The Cardiac Ready Communities Program assists communities with examining and strengthening each link in the cardiac chain of survival and implementing data collection systems to help drive change and improvement.
Overview
New Hampshire has undertaken a statewide initiative to improve care for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. The state participates in the CARES registry and has developed an EMS curriculum for training best practices in EMS high-performance CPR. The state works closely with Maine and Vermont to share best practices and has a Resuscitation Academy forum to efficiently disseminate training.
Websites
State of New Hampshire Bureau of Emergency Medical Services, State Department of Health
Overview
North Carolina has the largest statewide system of emergency cardiovascular care, coordinating hospitals and EMS agencies across the state to rapidly diagnose and provide emergency treatment for heart attacks and sudden cardiac arrest. Important components of the strategy include community education initiatives; statewide partnerships with youth and school organizations; and efforts to reduce disparities in SCA treatment based on race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, geographic location and gender.
Websites
RACE CARS
www.nccacc.org
www.wakegov.com/ems
www.ncems.org
Overview
The North Dakota Cardiac Ready Community program aims to prepare communities to respond and assist to sudden cardiac event events. The program promotes the American Heart Association Chain of Survival. Key strengths include system implementation and evaluation; AED placement; and public education.
Websites
North Dakota Department of Health-Emergency Medical Services
Overview
Oregon stakeholders have coalesced to undertake reporting, detailed measurement, and programmatic improvement in communities ranging from large metropolitan centers to rural single-ambulance “systems.” Efforts include innovative pilot programs, a hospital-based Resuscitation Academy; and a statewide outreach program that shares the latest resuscitation science and training techniques with less-resourced EMS agencies.
Websites
Tualitan Valley Fire and Rescue
Oregon Health Sciences University
Jackson County EMS
Oregon Department of Health, Division of EMS and Trauma Systems
Overview
The University of Pennsylvania Department of Emergency Medicine’s Center for Resuscitation Science is dedicated to research and training that will save lives of people who suffer cardiac arrest. The Center is world renowned for its research and training in therapeutic hypothermia. Other efforts by the Center include the development of the Myheartmap project, a social media crowdsourcing contest to locate AEDs in Philadelphia; and a partnership with the Pennsylvania Bureau of EMS to offer EMS Resuscitation training to educate providers; and collaboration with communities on CPR training.
Websites
www.med.upenn.edu/resuscitation
Overview
The Texas-Cardiac Registry to Enhance Survival (Texas-CARES) Program promotes a comprehensive, standardized system of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest care. Highlights include implementing and studying the impact of quality-improvement programs in each link of the chain of survival; creating synergy with community organizations and public health and emergency response agencies engaged in efforts to improve bystander response and pre-hospital care; and an active state advisory board dedicated to expanding the CARES registry and improving OHCA care across Texas.
Website
https://tx-cares.com/
Overview
Utah’s EMS system has a strong network that enables a unified and coordinated approach to cardiac arrest resuscitation. Other notable state efforts include participation in the CARES registry for population-based measurement; a scalable statewide EMS training platform; and development of innovative technologies such as an ultrasound technology to better characterize heart function during resuscitation.
Websites
State of Utah Bureau of EMS and Preparedness, State Department of Health
Overview
The Vermont Alliance for Critical Heart Resuscitation (VTACHR) is an ongoing collaboration to improve out of hospital cardiac arrest survival in the state. The VTACHR project focuses on high performance CPR and cardiac arrest management; data collection and performance improvement; bystander CPR and public access AEDs; and emergency medical dispatch and dispatcher guided CPR in working toward decreased morbidity and mortality after cardiac arrest.
Email
VTEMS@Vermont.gov
Overview
Efforts in Washington state, led by the University of Washington and Pacific Northwest HeartRescue Initiative, are designed to provide communities with scalable strategies that can improve resuscitation care and outcomes. Programs include the Resuscitation Academy Leadership program; EMS and community training programs; a school-based training initiative; increasing the role of the emergency dispatcher; expanding data collection; and the development of many toolkits and resources.
Websites
The Medic One Program of Seattle Fire Department
King County Emergency Medical Services
Resuscitation Academy
Overview
GMR is the single largest provider of EMS in the United States covering almost 52 million people in 2,000 communities in 48 states. GMR includes more than 16,000 AMR EMTs, paramedics, nurses and caregivers throughout the world. GMR provides oversight, manpower and resources to ensure community initiatives to improve sudden cardiac arrest survival are supported, executed and sustained.
Websites
www.amr.net/about/medicine
Overview
The Resuscitation Academy works to help EMS managers and directors improve cardiac arrest survival in their communities. RA has conducted academies conducted throughout the United States. Participants learn how to define a community’s cardiac arrest survival rate; understand the principles of the Utstein template and how to report data; develop a concrete plan of action to improve survival; and measure the effect of the plan of action on cardiac arrest survival.
Overview
CARES is a secure, web-based data management system in which participating communities enter local data and generate their own reports. Communities can compare their EMS system performance to de-identified aggregate statistics at the local, state, or national level and discover promising practices that could improve emergency cardiac care. CARES data are used to help communities benchmark and improve their performance for OHCA care.
Websites
https://mycares.net/
A Maryland partnership shares two counties’ best practices in resuscitation with communities across the state and region.
Vermont, Maine, and New Hampshire work together to advance resuscitation.
In Minnesota, sudden cardiac arrest survivors play a pivotal role in securing resuscitation policies.
Supported by the Laerdal Foundation, stakeholders from Europe, Asia, Australia and New Zealand formed the Global Resuscitation Alliance to address disparities in care and advance resuscitation programs.
Partners came together in Washington State to address challenges facing responders during the pandemic.
HeartRescue and its partners have made exceptional progress over the past decade. They are improving how SCA is recognized, treated and measured. They have created innovative programs and initiatives, modernizing best practices for bystanders, EMS and hospitals, alike. They have engaged communities of all shapes and sizes, saving thousands of lives. However, the work is far from finished. There are more lives to save, and we hope you will join us on this journey.
