Field Termination of Resuscitation: Analysis of a Newly Implemented Protocol

Abstract

Termination-of-resuscitation protocols are not being implemented as intended in this EMS system: more than half of cardiac arrest patients meeting criteria for termination of resuscitation were transported anyway. These protocol violations result in emergency transport to the ED for a substantial number of patients for whom continued resuscitative efforts are futile: no patient who met TOR criteria in this sample survived to discharge.