WE CARE (Working to Enhance Cardiac Arrest Resuscitation Effectiveness

About the Program

Category: Health (Best in Category)

Year: 2020

Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is increasingly recognized as the leading cause of preventable death encountered in the Emergency Medical Services (EMS) world. The American Heart Association (AHA) describes the interventions to save these patients as a “chain of survival.” The Los Angeles County Fire Department’s (Department) EMS Quality Management Section has worked tirelessly to improve the outcomes in these patients, from improving bystander cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in the field all the way to advanced specialty care in Comprehensive Cardiac Hospitals. Not only have these efforts yielded a dramatic increase in patients regaining pulses in the field, they have established the framework for a system-wide comprehensive approach to cardiac arrest that, if it grows as planned, would be the largest system of its kind in the world.