The development and implementation of cardiac arrest centers.

Abstract

In the last decade, many regionalized centers for the care of post-cardiac arrest patients (cardiac arrest centers) have all independently developed with a common goal of providing multi-disciplinary and organized care plans for this patient population. The American Heart Association recently issued support for regionalized and organized comprehensive care for post-arrest patients through a position paper as well as the 2010 American Heart Association BLS/ACLS guidelines. This paper outlines the formation, structure, and implementation of four cardiac arrest centers, and also discusses a statewide model of post-arrest center care. This paper may assist other potential clinical sites that are considering or actively developing cardiac arrest centers of their own.