DEVELOPMENT A CHECKLIST FOR CARDIOPULMONARY RESUSCITATION (CPR) QUALITY CONTROL IN EMERGENCY DEPARTMENT; A QUALITATIVE STUDY

Background and Aim : Monitoring the quality of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) could behelpful for achieving favorable outcomes, decreasing mortality, and preventing post-CPRneurologic sequels. This study aimed to generate a user-friendly checklist for CPR quality controlin emergency department (ED).Methods : A qualitative study was performed between January and December 2018. In the firststep, two emergency medicine specialists searched currently available databases and extracted thefactors related to CPR quality. Afterward, two sessions of focus group discussions were held. Theparticipants comprised four emergency medicine specialists, two ED managers, oneanesthesiologist, and one cardiologist. Subsequently, 20 medical specialists, consisting of 10emergency medicine specialists, six anesthesiologists, and four cardiologists, were invited to aDelphi panel in order to rate the extracted items from the prior group discussions.Results : During the two rounds of focus group discussions, 38 items related to the quality of CPRwere identified. A Delphi panel evaluated the items; 31 items with at least 75% agreement wereselected. These 31 items were included in the final checklist and, after a pilot study and adjustmentof its content, sorted in 10 categories as follows: 1. chest compression, 2. airway, 3. bag-maskventilation, 4. cardiac monitoring, 5. defibrillation, 6. intravenous (IV) drug delivery, 7.Medications, 8. Advanced airway, 9. CPR sequence, 10. Reversible causes.Conclusion : Our study provides a checklist for monitoring the quality of CPR in the ED, but it isstill necessary to include other factors related to the ED environment on this checklist.

Keywords:

Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation , Heart arrest , quality control , Emergency Medicine