Anchorage Fire Department Cardiac Arrest Save Rates

Feb. 25th 2008 Anchorage, Alaska

How does the Anchorage Fire Department compare to other cities in the delivery of emergency medical services? If you had a cardiac arrest and collapsed here in Anchorage what chance would you have to survive?


A 2003 USA Today article found disparities in emergency medical care across the nation and said cities that carefully track their EMS performance save many more lives.

Several cities including Houston, Anchorage, Austin, Cincinnati, Kansas City, Raleigh and Tucson have signed up for the Emory University/CDC (Centers for Disease Control) study known as Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhance Survival, or CARES. This 5 year, $1.5 million CDC project launched four years ago. Initial investigations found that emergency medical systems in most of the nation’s 50 largest cities were fragmented, inconsistent and slow.


The number one cause of death for Americans is cardiovascular disease. Over 500,000 deaths occur each year secondary to cardiovascular disease. Approximately 250,000 of these deaths occur before the patient reaches the hospital. These Out-Of-Hospital-Cardiac-Arrest (OOHCA) patients are responded to by emergency services personnel.

According to the latest numbers from the American Heart Association, the current percentage of patients that survive OOHCA to be discharged from the hospital is 6.4%.

Patient survival rates are measured and calculated using an agreed upon set of criteria called the Utstein template. The Utstein template was first developed in 1991 to provide a consistent means of studying OOHCA resuscitation effort outcomes.

Since 1999, Dr. Michael Levy has applied the Utstein template to measuring resuscitation rates in Anchorage and has shown a consistent upward slope in the graph of the city’s resuscitation rates.

Using the Utstein criteria, the survival to hospital discharge rate from OOHCA in Anchorage, Alaska for 2007 is 40.1%.

Anchorage is a participant in the multi-city Cardiac Arrest Registry to Enhanced Survival (CARES) study. The data from Anchorage being entered into this study and the Utstein template numbers show Anchorage is in the top tier of cities with the best resuscitation rates in the country. These data are being presented to an assembly of EMS physician leaders this month. Anchorage’s data are to be submitted for publication at the national level within the next year.

King County, Washington (Seattle) is routinely lauded as among the very best in the nation for survival from cardiac arrest reporting a 46% survival to discharge rate, up from 33%, since initiating the 2005 AHA guideline changes to BLS. The rate of bystander initiated CPR is among the highest in the nation, if not the highest, and is thought to contribute considerably to their good outcomes.



Dr. Michael Levy is the Anchorage Fire Department's Medical Director

Tom Kempton
Battalion Chief
Anchorage Fire Department
100 E 4th Ave
Anchorage, AK 99501

907-267-4999

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