Duration of hospital participation in Get With the Guidelines-Resuscitation and survival of in-hospital cardiac arrest.

BACKGROUND: Get With the Guidelines (GWTG-R) is a data registry and quality improvement program for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). It is unknown if duration of hospital participation in GWTG-R is associated with IHCA outcomes.

METHODS: We analyzed adults with IHCA from 362 hospitals participating in GWTG-R between 2000 and 2009. Using logistic regression with generalized estimating equations to account for clustering on hospital, we determined the association between duration of hospital participation in GWTG-R and patient outcomes after IHCA, adjusted for patient and arrest characteristics and secular trend. Using these methods, we also evaluated the association between duration of participation and factors previously correlated with survival after IHCA, including ECG monitored status, after-hours arrest, and time to defibrillation.

RESULTS: Of 104,732 patients with IHCA, 17,646 patients (16.9%) survived to discharge. Duration of hospital participation in GWTG-R was associated with IHCA event survival (per year of participation, odds ratio [OR] 1.02; 95% CI 1.00-1.04; p=0.046) but not survival to discharge (OR 1.02; 95% CI 0.99-1.04; p=0.18). Among factors previously correlated with IHCA survival, duration of participation was associated with time to defibrillation ≤2 min (per year of participation, OR 1.06; 95% CI 1.03-1.10; p<0.001), but not ECG monitored status (OR 1.00; 95% CI 0.93-1.06; p=0.90) or survival of after-hours arrest (OR 1.01; 95% CI 0.99-1.03; p=0.41). Among ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) arrests, time to defibrillation attenuated the association between duration of hospital participation and outcomes.

CONCLUSION: Duration of hospital participation in GWTG-R was significantly associated with survival of the IHCA event, but not with survival to discharge. In VT/VF arrests, this association may have been mediated by improvements in time to defibrillation.