Wake County, N.C.
Cardiac Arrest victims have a better chance of survival thanks to new, analytics-driven recommendations from Wake County Emergency Medical Services. Analytics provider SAS analyzed data on responses to cardiac arrest calls from 2005 through 2012, including time spent administering CPR, and patient outcomes. As a result of the analyses, Wake County EMS has changed its approach from the old industry standard of 25 minutes of CPR.
In certain cases, responders may continue resuscitation efforts for up to an hour or more without worrying that a survivor has a higher chance of ending up with significant brain damage. Analysis indicates that stopping CPR efforts early may miss some patients who could survive neurologically intact. Future research will evaluate how to determine which patients may benefit from longer resuscitation efforts.