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The BWH Emergency Response Committee is working with Biomedical Engineering and clinical staff to update all automatic external defibrillators (AEDs and Zoll M Series AED functions) throughout the hospital. These changes, which will be implemented from June 14 to19, are designed to minimize interruptions in chest compressions.
“The new settings on our defibrillators come from American Heart Association (AHA) guidelines that are based on the effectiveness of first shocks immediately followed by chest compressions,” said Peter Stone, MD, co-director of the Cardiac Care Unit and co-chair of the Emergency Response Committee.
The settings align BWH with the AHA’s guidelines for cardiopulmonary resuscitation and emergency cardiovascular care. In addition, the changes acknowledge the high first-shock success of biphasic waveforms in eliminating ventricular fibrillation or rapid ventricular tachycardia.
The new settings require clinicians to administer one shock followed by immediate CPR, beginning with chest compressions. The AED will check a patient’s rhythm after five cycles of CPR (two minutes). Also, the first and each subsequent shock from the AEDs are 200 jewels.
Previously, BWH AEDs would cycle through three shocks growing in strength (120, 150 and 200 jewels) before giving clinicians an opportunity to perform CPR.