What strategies are used to improve delivery of early defibrillation to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims?
Strategies used to improve delivery of early defibrillation to out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims include training and equipping first responders (fire and law enforcement), EMS personnel, and paramedics to defibrillate, as well as placing automated external defibrillators in highly populated locations such as airports, commercial aircraft, and gambling casinos (public access defibrillation). These strategies have been shown to approximately double the number of neurologically intact out-of-hospital cardiac arrest survivors when laypersons are trained and equipped to provide early CPR and defibrillation with automated external defibrillators, compared with providing CPR alone while awaiting arrival of EMS personnel.