Objectives: As part of an Emergency   Department (ED) Quality Improvement (QI) project, we sought to determine the   impact of real-time audio-visual (AV) feedback during CPR amongst ED   healthcare providers. 

Methods: Participants performed two minutes of uninterrupted CPR   without AV feedback, followed by two minutes of CPR with AV feedback after a   two-minute rest period in a simulated CPR setting. CPR metrics were captured   by the defibrillator and uploaded to review software for analysis of each   event. 

Results: The use  of real-time AV feedback resulted in a significant improvement in the number   of participants meeting AHA/HSFC recommended depth (38%, p = 0.0003) and rate   (35%, p = 0.0002). Importantly, ‘compressions in target’, where participants   met both rate and depth simultaneously, improved with AV feedback (19 vs 61%,   p < 0.0001). 

Conclusions: We found a significant improvement in compliance with CPR depth   and rate targets as well as ‘compressions in target’ with the use of   real-time AV feedback during simulation training. Future research is needed   to ascertain whether these results would be replicated in other settings. Our  findings do provide a robust argument for the implementation of real-time AV   CPR feedback in Hamilton Emergency Departments.

Authors: Jodie Pritchard, Jillian Roberge, Joseph Bacani, Michelle Welsford, and Shawn Mondoux