Definition of Hospital CPR

When a patient experiences cardiorespiratory arrest in a hospital setting, it is up to the health care professionals within the building to resuscitate the patient with the correct technique. The process involves CPR, or cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

CPR

• Cardiopulmonary resuscitation involves breathing and chest compressions given to persons suffering from cardiorespiratory arrest.

Correct CPR Procedure

• The person who needs to be resuscitated should be laid flat on their back while someone breathes into the person's mouth, pinching their nose and watching if their chest rises. If this does not work, you must push on their chest, in the middle of the lower half of the sternum. Then, after 30 compressions, a person should apply their mouth to the patient and blow just as before twice, each breath lasting a econd.

Hospital Procedure

• When a patient collapses in-hospital, the procedure for medical staff is first to call for help and assess the patient, then provide CPR, delivering 30 chest compressions followed by two ventilations (or two full breaths).

Advantages of Hospital CPR

• When CPR is performed in-hospital, there are more tools available to aid the person performing CPR. Those include a pocket mask, which shields the professional from direct contact with the patient's mouth, as well as bag masks and laryngeal mask airways.

Problems with In-hospital CPR

• A study looking at the University of Chicago's hospitals' success rates with resuscitation found that 28.1 percent did not provide the recommended 100 compressions per minute, while 20 ventilations were delivered per minute in 60.9 percent of cases, more than the 10 recommended.