Management of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. Failure of basic emergency medical technician services.

Survival after out-of-hospital cardiac arrest treated by emergency medical technicians (EMTs) with basic life support was studied in four communities with a combined population of 380,000. During a two-year period, 18 (6%) of 321 patients with cardiac arrest were resuscitated and ultimately discharged from the hospital. This figure is compared with 55 (22%) of 253 discharged in adjacent suburban communities with paramedic services. The evident factor accounting for the difference in survival rates was the time from collapse to receiving definitive care (advanced cardiac life support)--26 minutes in the EMT area compared to 7.8 minutes in the paramedic area.