To call the cardiac arrest team phone 2222. 

The James Cook Hospital is a very large site and cardiac arrest call management may be different to previous hospitals that you have worked in. 

The ICU 3 resident is responsible for holding the cardiac arrest bleep. If you are undertaking a procedure which means you are not available to attend immediately the bleep should be handed over until you are free. A senior ALS trained critical care nurse will attend with you. You should take the red cardiac arrest transfer bag with you in case a cardiac arrest trolley is not available. It is the responsibility of medical staff to make sure this bag is re-stocked after use, if you use anything from this bag then please make arrangements for it to be re-filled when you return to ICU. The HDU resident and senior HDU nurse also hold a cardiac arrest bleep in case the call comes from the HDU zone of the hospital (the spinal unit and wards 1-12). 

The rest of the cardiac arrest team is made up of junior medical staff, FY1 and FY2’s, coronary care nursing staff, RTO if in office hours and portering staff. The medical Registrar is not a member of the cardiac arrest team. As the ICU resident you may be the most senior member of medical staff and you should be prepared to take on the role of team leader. Senior medical staff can and should be called as necessary. 

The hospital has a very robust audit system to audit cardiac arrest management and participates in the National Cardiac Arrest Audit. More details about this national audit can be found at their website. It is the responsibility of the ICU 3 resident to ensure that the audit form is completed. Audit forms are found in the tray of emergency drugs. The forms (see copy below) are in triplicate:

• 1 copy for patient case notes, 
• 1 copy to send to the resus department and 
• 1 copy (the bottom copy that does not have patient details) for your own records. 

The resuscitation training department obtain a call log from switchboard and have a copy of the critical care rota. They will contact the appropriate doctor if forms are not completed. If they do not receive a form they will contact your educational supervisor.

Dr Garcia sits on the resuscitation committee and he is also informed.

If the arrest was a false alarm, it is still expected that you assess the patient and complete a form. Spare forms are kept in the lab near to the blood gas analysers in the link corridor between ICU2 and 3.