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(Circulation. 2003;108:697.)
© 2003 American Heart Association, Inc.

Clinical Investigation and Reports

Cost Effectiveness of Defibrillation by Targeted Responders in Public Settings

G. Nichol, MPH, MD; T. Valenzuela, MPH, MD; D. Roe, PhD; L. Clark, RN, MA; E. Huszti, MSc; G.A. Wells, PhD

From the Ottawa Health Research Institute (G.N., E.H., G.A.W.) and Department of Epidemiology and Community Medicine (G.N., G.A.W.), University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Canada; Department of Emergency Medicine (T.V., L.C.), University of Arizona, Tucson; and Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics (D.R.), College of Public Health, University of Arizona, Tucson.

Correspondence to Dr Graham Nichol, F699 Clinical Epidemiology Program, Ottawa Health Research Institute, Ottawa Hospital, 1053 Carling Ave, Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 4E9, Canada.

Received July 9, 2002; de novo received December 23, 2002; revision received May 6, 2003; accepted May 7, 2003.

Background— Out-of-hospital cardiac arrest is frequent and has poor outcomes. Defibrillation by trained targeted nontraditional responders improves survival versus historical controls, but it is unclear whether such defibrillation is a good value for the money. Therefore, this study estimated the incremental cost effectiveness of defibrillation by targeted nontraditional responders in public settings by using decision analysis.

Methods and Results— A Markov model evaluated the potential cost effectiveness of standard emergency medical services (EMS) versus targeted nontraditional responders. Standard EMS included first-responder defibrillation followed by advanced life support. Targeted nontraditional responders included standard EMS supplemented by defibrillation by trained lay responders. The analysis adopted a US societal perspective. Input data were derived from published or publicly available data. Future costs and effects were discounted at 3%. Monte Carlo simulation and sensitivity analyses assessed the robustness of results. Standard EMS had a median of 0.47 (interquartile range [IQR]=0.32 to 0.69) quality-adjusted life years and a median of $14 100 (IQR=$8600 to $21 900) costs per arrest. Targeted nontraditional responders in casinos had an incremental cost of a median $56 700 (IQR=$44 100 to $77 200) per additional quality-adjusted life year. The results were sensitive to changes in time to defibrillation, incidence of arrest, and number of devices required to implement rapid defibrillation.

Conclusions— Where cardiac arrest is frequent and response time intervals are short, rapid defibrillation by targeted nontraditional responders may be a good value for the money compared with standard EMS. The incidence of arrest should be considered when choosing locations to implement public access defibrillation.

Key Words: heart arrest • defibrillation • cardiopulmonary resuscitation • death, sudden

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