CARES is a collaborative effort of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emory University, Woodruff Health Sciences with the goal of improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest.
The CARES registry is used by hospitals, EMS agencies, ambulance services, fire departments and researchers to track first responder and EMS response times as well as patient outcomes. This database improves survival by allowing EMS agencies and hospitals to review patient outcomes and recognize every detail of the patient's cardiac arrest event. The data collected includes every detail that occurred on the scene, what happened during transport to the hospital, and what happened in the hospital. Doing this can enact quality improvement projects and create a more standardized approach to caring for those who suffer from sudden cardiac arrest. This project takes a comprehensive clinical and public health approach to overall survival for our family, friends, and neighbors.
CARES data are used to help communities benchmark and improve their performance for OHCA care. CARES allows participating communities to view their own statistics online confidentially and compare their performance to anonymous aggregated data at the local, regional, or national level. CARES automatically calculates local 911 response intervals, delivery rates for critical interventions (e.g., bystander CPR and public access defibrillation [PAD]), and community rates of survival and functional status at discharge, on the basis of each patient's CPC Scale. An annual report is provided to all participating communities that summarizes local results in comparison to regional and national benchmarks. Tracking performance longitudinally allows communities to better understand which elements of their care are working well and which elements need improvement. Reporting at the state and local levels can enable state and local public health and EMS agencies to coordinate their efforts to target improving emergency response for OHCA events which can lead to improvement in OHCA survival rates.
CARES is a collaborative effort of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Emory University, Woodruff Health Sciences with the goal of improving survival from sudden cardiac arrest.
CARES manages an online database system that reduces the time involved in registering out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) events and provides the ability to track first-responder and EMS response times as well as patient outcomes. CARES can be used by a variety of groups, including:
The database and more information can be found on the CARES website at www.mycares.net. The Missouri registry is maintained by the University of Missouri Department of Emergency Medicine.
The CARES registry is designed to help local agencies identify: