Evaluation of advanced cardiac life support in a community teaching hospital by use of actual cardiac arrests

Objective: To determine the retention of Advanced Cardiac Life Support training of internalmedicine residents as a function of the time since successfully completing ACLS training. : Prospective, consecutive sample of patients who underwent a cardiopulmonaryresuscitation effort directed by physicians who successfully completed ACLS. g: Eastern community teaching hospital. ts: 180 consecutive patients over the age of 18 years who sustained a cardiopulmonaryarrest and whose resuscitation efforts were directed by physicians who successfully completed ACLS. Forty-five additional resuscitative efforts hospital wide were led by non-ACLS-trained physicians during the study period. e measures: Correctness of the diagnosis of rhythms and treatment of the rhythms diagnosed were assessed, as per ACLS protocols in effect at the time of the study, in 1991. ention: None. s: Chi-squares were used for analysis. Seventy-six of the resuscitative efforts were run bymedical residents with a 13.2% error rate. The error rate in the first 6 months after ACLS completion among residents was 5.1%, as compared with 21.6% in the next 6 months (p=0.033), with no impact on actual survival rate. During the study period, error rates among other groups were 8.8% in Emergency Department physicians and 17.8% among non-ACLS-trained physicians. sions: The error rate found was lower than in previous studies evaluating retention of ACLS education. It is important to have regular updates in ACLS to ensure proper protocol use.