Communicating resuscitation. The importance of documentation in cardiac arrest

To primarily assess documentation during in-hospital cardiopulmonary arrest resuscitation and to secondarily observe cardiopulmonary resuscitation event and outcome variables.

A retrospective review of 360 code blue forms and medical records at King Fahad General Hospital, King Abdulaziz General Hospital (Almahjar), and Althghar Hospital in Jeddah was performed between 2015 to 2016.

Survival to discharge rates and neurological outcomes were not documented at all. Other undocumented variables include gender 9 (2.5%), nationality 12 (3.3%), code blue announcement time 130 (36%), initial rhythm 10 (2.8%), time to airway placement 154 (57.2%), time to cardiology arrival 181 (50.27%), and time to anesthesia arrival 145 (40.27%).

We strongly recommend the use of standardized cardiopulmonary arrest sheets among all hospitals and follow up of neurological outcomes and survival to discharge as outcome variables.