The chances of surviving an out-of-hospital heart attack are significantly better when resuscitation efforts are conducted on the scene rather than performed while the patient is being transported—a process known as “scoop and run”-- according to a study published in JAMA. The study was funded in part by NHLBI.
There’s wide variability among emergency medical systems with respect to transport of patients to the hospital during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitative efforts, the researchers note. They sought to answer the following question: Is transport to hospital during adult out-of-hospital cardiac arrest resuscitation compared with continued on-scene treatment associated with a difference in survival to hospital discharge?
The researchers studied 44,000 patients from the United States and Canada. They found that cardiac arrest patients who were transported to the hospital during resuscitation had a greater chance of dying than those who were treated on-scene. Of patients immediately transported to the hospital 3.8% survived, while 12.6% survived who were treated on-scene. The researchers conclude that the results of this study do not support the practice of routinely transporting patients during resuscitation from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest to the hospital.