Non‐beneficial resuscitation during inhospital cardiac arrests in a metropolitan teaching hospital.

Background: There is increasing recognition that a proportion of hospitalised patients receive non‐beneficial resuscitation, with the potential to cause harm. Aim: To describe the prevalence of non‐beneficial resuscitation attempts in hospitalised patients and identify interventions that could be used to reduce these events. Methods: A retrospective analysis was conducted of all adult inhospital cardiac arrests (IHCA) receiving cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) in a teaching hospital over 9 years. Demographics and arrest characteristics were obtained from a prospectively collected database. Non‐beneficial CPR was defined as CPR being administered to patients who had a current not‐for‐resuscitation (NFR) order in place or who had a NFR order enacted on a previous hospital admission. Further antecedent factors and resuscitation characteristics were collected for these patients. Results: There were 257 IHCA, of which 115 (44.7%) occurred on general wards, with 19.8% of all patients surviving to discharge home. There were 39 (15.2%) instances of non‐beneficial CPR, of which 28 (72%) of 39 occurred in unmonitored patients on the ward comprising nearly one‐quarter (28/115) of all arrests in this patient group. A specialist had reviewed 30 (76.9%) of 39 of these patients, and 33.3% (13/39) had a medical emergency team (MET) review prior to their arrest. Conclusions: Over one in seven resuscitation attempts were non‐beneficial. MET reviews and specialist ward rounds provide opportunities to improve the documentation and visibility of NFR status. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]