The audit monitors and reports on the incidence of, and outcome from, in-hospital cardiac arrests in order to inform practice and policy. It aims to identify and foster improvements in the prevention, care delivery and outcomes from cardiac arrest.

The current scope of data collection is:   all individuals (excluding neonates) receiving chest compressions and/or defibrillation and attended by the hospital-based resuscitation team (or equivalent) in response to the 2222 call.

Participating hospitals collect data on a standardised dataset. The current dataset module consists of just 22 fields covering patient data and short-term outcomes. Future modules are likely to focus on interventions and longer-term outcomes.

Data are collected according to standardised definitions, entered onto the NCAA secure web-based system and validated both at the point of entry and centrally, to improve quality.

Hospitals are provided with Activity Reports which provide an overview of the completeness of data submitted and an analysis of activity at the hospital for a given time period. Activity Reports are quarterly (based on a financial year, i.e. April to March), cumulative and report on all data submitted from the date the hospital commenced participating in NCAA.

With respect to comparative data, simple unadjusted comparisons would be unfair so, to this end, we need to accumulate sufficient numbers of team visit records to be able to both develop and validate a multivariable statistical model on which we can base fair outcome comparisons. With increasing numbers of hospitals participating, we are hopeful that we may be able to undertake this work towards the end of 2011 with incorporation into reports in quarter one of the NHS financial year 2012/13.

In the interim, however, acknowledging that even some simple comparisons are useful, we will be providing some stratified analyses to each participating hospital at the first NCAA Annual Meeting on 6 October 2011. These will compare individual hospitals with grouped comparisons i.e. outcomes in your hospital by, for example, presenting rhythm, age, etc, compared with the grouped experience of all other hospitals submitting data to NCAA.

If you would like more information about NCAA please visit www.icnarc.org
or contact the NCAA Team by email ncaa@icnarc.org
or by telephone: 020 7554 9779.

       For further information on NCAA:   click here
 
 
 
 
 

	© Resuscitation Council (UK)  2011   This page last updated: 17 June 2011