Cardiac arrests in skilled nursing facilities: continuing room for improvement?

To characterize the care received by skilled nursing facility (SNF/NF) patients suffering cardiac arrest and to evaluate the outcome of SNF/NF patients experiencing cardiac arrest.

A retrospective analysis of an existing cardiac arrest registry to characterize SNF/NF cardiac arrest patients and to compare them to community-dwelling cardiac arrest patients was performed.

The study took place in Rochester, NY, an urban city in upstate New York with approximately 220,000 residents.

All patients for whom emergency medical services (EMS) assistance was requested via the 911 system and who were treated for cardiac arrest between January 1998 and December 2001 were included.

Demographic characteristics such as age, gender, race; clinical characteristics and interventions such as cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), defibrillation, initial cardiac rhythm, and call response interval; outcomes measures such as return of spontaneous circulation and 1-year survival were obtained.

Forty-two (8%) of cardiac arrest patients resided in an SNF/NF. Sixteen (38%) of the events were witnessed arrests. Only 28 (67%) patients received CPR and none were defibrillated prior to EMS arrival. One (2%) patient was alive 1 year after the event, a survival rate similar to the community-dwelling population (5%).

SNF/NF patients suffering cardiac arrest often did not receive CPR or defibrillation while awaiting EMS arrival. SNF/NF patients suffering cardiac arrest have a very low survival rate, similar to the community-dwelling population. The impact of not providing CPR and defibrillation on the survival rate is unclear, but needs to be evaluated prior to any decisions regarding the medical futility of resuscitating SNF/NF patients.