Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer is associated with improved survival from in-hospital ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest

Objective: To determine if the appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer improves survival to discharge from in-hospital ventricular fibrillation/pulseless Ventricular tachycardia cardiac arrest. Design: A 22-month prospective study. Setting: A 1100-bed teaching hospital. Subjects: All inpatients suffering ventricular fibrillation or ventricular tachycardia cardiorespiratory arrests. Interventions: Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer at start of study, who introduced coordinated resuscitation training for all staff. Main outcome: Survival to discharge. Result: Improvement in survival to discharge of 20-75% (P < 0.03, Spearman Rank Correlation test). Conclusion: Appointment of a Resuscitation Training Officer is associated with improved survival to discharge in ventricular fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia in-hospital cardiac arrest. (C) 1999 Elsevier Science Ireland Ltd. All rights reserved.