Everett Fire Department is seeing great results with new CPR techniques.
The Everett Fire Department posted record save rates for cardiac arrests in 2013. Of the Everett Fire patients that suffered a witnessed sudden cardiac arrest last year, 66 percent were released from the hospital with only minor neurological impairment, or no impairment at all. This is three times higher than the national average and is the highest posted survival rate in Snohomish County.
The Everett Fire Department has seen a dramatic increase in patient survival in sudden death cases since implementing a High Performance CPR (HPCPR) program two years ago.. Everett Fire’s High Performance CPR program is modeled after the Seattle Medic One and King County EMS programs. The Everett Fire department and most fire departments in Snohomish County have adopted HPCPR and can boast a 62 percent survival rate county-wide.
The chart below shows Everett Fire compared nationally:
| Agency | Survival rate of sudden cardiac arrest, witnessed |
| City of Everett Fire Department | 66% |
| Snohomish County | 62% |
| King County | 57% |
| Los Angeles | 7% |
| New York City | 5% |
| Chicago | 3% |
| Detroit | 0% |
Many elements make Everett Fire’s save rate possible. The Everett Medic One Foundation ensures that every Everett student of high school age and many Everett citizens are CPR-trained. EMS dispatchers at SNOPAC 911 quickly dispatch the appropriate fire department on cardiac arrest calls and coach citizens in CPR over the telephone. Providence Regional Medical Center in Everett provides excellent cardiac care and is twice as fast as the national standard at getting patients to lifesaving heart surgery.
Many EMS providers across Washington state use the Utstien Reporting System. This system is the standard that all survival rates are compared against. The variables and reporting criteria were established in 1991 in Norway and are used worldwide.
The following chart shows how Everett compares nationally using the Utstien Reporting System:
| National | Washington State | Everett | |
| Overall | 10.3% | 15.6% | 24.7% |
| By stander witnessed | 15.8% | 23.7% | 36.7% |
| Un-witnessed | 4.2% | 6.5% | 10.3% |
| Utstein | 31.8% | 45.8% | 62.4% |
| Utstein bystander | 36.6% | 50.4% | 66.7% |
Overall – survival rate of all patients that are believed to be caused by a cardiac problem, this excludes trauma, overdoses, drowning etc.
Bystander witnessed – Presumed cardiac cause and that the arrest was witnessed by another person.
Unwitnessed – Presumed cardiac but the arrest was not witnessed.
Utstein – presumed cardiac and initial cardiac rhythm was either ventricle fibrillations or ventricle tachycardia, by not witnessed by another person.
Utstein Bystander – presumed cardiac and initial cardiac rhythm was either ventricle fibrillations or ventricle tachycardia, by was witnessed by another person.
For more information on Utstien reporting and cardiac survival please go to www.circ.ahajournals.org/content/110/21/3385.full
More information on HPCPR can found at www.resuscitationacademy.com
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October 12, 2014
Everett, Everett Fire