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Concurrent Block #6

911, EMS, Fire & Law Enforcement

Success Stories from Rural and Suburban America

Naperville Fire - Leading The Way with ACR

Friday, December 1, 2023
3:00 PM – 3:15 PM PST
Location: Town and Country Ballroom B

    Primary Presenter(s)

  • Billy Croft

    LT. Firefighter/Paramedic
    Naperville Fire Department
    St Charles, IL, United States

    Disclosure(s): No financial relationships to disclose

    • Co-Presenter(s)

  • Daryl MacDonald

    Firefighter/Paramedic
    Naperville Fire Department
    Naperville, Illinois, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

  • Phil Giannattasio

    Deputy Chief
    Naperville Fire Department
    Aurora, Illinois, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

    • Moderator(s)

  • Kimberly K. Harkins, MPH

    Center for Resuscitation Medicine Program Director
    University of Minnesota
    Minneapolis, MN, United States

    Disclosure information not submitted.

Disclosure(s):
Billy Croft: No financial relationships to disclose
Summary: The Naperville (IL) Fire Department is increasing cardiac arrest survivability with a comprehensive approach by optimizing the patient, system and the community. The NFD's ROSC rate has soared to 40%, along with a survival rate increase to nearly 22%.

Synopsis: In 2019, the Naperville (IL) Fire Department embarked on a mission to save lives by implementing an Advanced Cardiac Resuscitation (ACR) program as part of a comprehensive approach to treating out-of-hospital cardiac arrest patients. The ultimate goal of this program was to not only save lives but to dramatically increase the quality of those lives following discharge from the hospital.

The significant increase in ROSC and more importantly, survival rates, is attributed to three areas of optimization: the patient, the community and the system.

Optimizing the patient involves using a mechanical CPR device, an impedance threshold device (ITD), expanded use of capnography, and clinically appropriate defibrillation and administration of epinephrine to increase neurologically intact survival.

Optimizing the community involves increasing public awareness of the importance of bystander CPR, access to and training on the use of AEDs, and utilizing the Pulse Point App to alert CPR-trained residents of cardiac arrest incidents and the nearest AED locations. In addition, the Naperville Fire Department launched Heart Safe Naperville in 2023, a program aimed at teaching a percentage of the community in “hands only” CPR.

Optimizing the system involves forming strong partnerships with our resource hospitals, dispatch center, police department, and making funding and resources available to sustain our mission.

The Naperville Fire Department’s successful implementation of Advanced Cardiac Resuscitation and our focus on patient care, community awareness and system-wide coordination has led to a improvement in ROSC and cardiac arrest survival rates.

Learning Objectives:

  • List and describe the NFD's holistic strategy to elevate cardiac arrest survival.
  • Describe strategies on how to effectively challenge the status quo of cardiac arrest survival with the use of data and evidence based medicine to positively change the culture in your organization and community.
  • This presentation will include ways to educate citizens that can lead to a comprehensive change to a culture of excellence and improved CPR training in the community, schools and workplace.
  • This presentation will include components of a high quality collaborative cardiovascular and resuscitation program in a dispatch, EMS and / or healthcare system that has demonstrated improvement in survival from SCA.
  • This presentation will describe one or more survivor / rescuer stories that can be used to illustrate an effective chain of survival for cardiac arrest.