{
  "abstract": "Background Appropriately responding following an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) is an important task for Emergency Medical Services (EMS). Whilst multiple resources may optimise resuscitation, responses for other patients within the community may be delayed. During triage, EMS callers are asked to provide an initial incident description, this study aimed to analyse this description to identify any terms associated with clinical outcome to support resource deployment. Two subgroups of focus were patients for whom no resuscitation was delivered and those who survived to 30 days.Methods A retrospective review was completed of 37,532 OHCA calls occurring between 01/04/2020 and 31/03/2023 from a single English EMS. Unique identifiers linked call data with clinical records and outcome at 30 days. EMS callers’ initial description was analysed with single, double and triple word phrases studied.Results 66.3% of calls had resuscitation withheld following OHCA confirmation. 70.2% of the sample were triaged to a CAT1 response, including 64.7% of calls with no resuscitation attempted. 13 terms were identified with strong association to having resuscitation withheld; 54% of these ‘lifeless’ descriptors were triaged as CAT1. 11 terms were identified with increased survival at 30 days, these terms suggested recent ‘signs of life’. Chi-square analysis demonstrated significance (p < 0.001) for these subgroups compared to the remainder.Conclusion Current practice may not deliver a proportionate response for incidents where callers independently describe death. Adjusting the EMS responses for OHCA patients based on the initial description from a caller should be considered. enabling resources to attend patients in the community where an opportunity to save life exists. Unstructured information volunteer by EMS callers may include key descriptors pertinent to other clinical emergencies and could aid with accurate identification and timely dispatch. Further work should be undertaken to establish the replicability of this study to other clinical contexts.",
  "authors": [
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Ollie Zorab"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Stewart McMorran"
    },
    {
      "affiliations": [
        "South Western Ambulance Service NHS Foundation Trust, UK",
        "Dorset and Somerset Air Ambulance, UK"
      ],
      "name": "Kim Kirby"
    }
  ],
  "title": "PP38 The caller is (almost) always right. Does the initial description of an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) given by callers contacting emergency medical services (EMS) contain key indicator words which can be used to support accurate resource deployment",
  "uid": "a8b6d959-fefd-5c3c-b3b5-f949493bbc07"
}