Becker's Clinical Quality & Infection Control

13 PATIENT EXPERIENCE It's not just 'Stayin' Alive' — Here's why NewYork- Presbyterian built a Spotify playlist for CPR By Jessica Kim Cohen M ore than 350,000 people suffer from cardiac arrest each year outside the hospital setting, according to the American Heart Association. Only 46 percent of these victims receive help from bystanders before paramedics arrive, despite a simple procedure — CPR — that can nearly triple the chances of survival. "I believe people want to help," Holly Anders- en, MD, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbyteri- an and director of education and outreach for the hospital's Ronald O. Perelman Heart Insti- tute, told Becker's Hospital Review during an interview. "ey just don't know what to do." To boost bystanders' confidence in delivering CPR, clinicians at NewYork-Presbyterian in New York City partnered with Spotify to compile a playlist of songs at the right tempo for the procedure. e project, which went live in May 2017, gained recent attention aer a screenshot of the playlist from Buzzfeed re- porter Julia Reinstein went viral on Twitter. As of Oct. 23, her tweet boasts more than 111,000 likes and 46,000 retweets. e playlist, which has nearly 79,000 followers, comprises 46 songs, all of which are 100 to 120 beats per minute — the recommended pace to perform chest compressions for CPR. It includes CPR education standbys like "Stayin' Alive" by the Bee Gees, alongside Michael Jackson's "Man in the Mirror," Lynyrd Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama" and Gloria Gaynor's "I Will Survive." In the playlist's description, NewYork-Pres- byterian recommends listeners "pick one to remember in case you ever need to save a life." "As a cardiologist, I have spent my whole career frustrated, resuscitating patients with no brain viability and hearing of athletes dying on the playing field unnecessarily because people do not know what to do — and it's so simple," Dr. Andersen said. "We want everyone to know how to save a life with hands-only CPR." e playlist is part of NewYork-Presbyteri- an's Hands Only CPR initiative, a campaign to educate the public on how to intervene when someone experiences cardiac arrest. NewYo- rk-Presbyterian launched the program a few years ago, aer two hospital employees wit- nessed a patient experiencing cardiac arrest on a train. ey performed CPR for 23 minutes before the train reached emergency personnel. "is playlist is empowering," Dr. Andersen said. "Standing around helpless waiting for help to arrive is a horrible, traumatic experience … Instead of recoiling in fear when you see a victim in cardiac arrest, think of a 'Hands Only CPR' song and jump in — pushing down hard in the center of the chest to the beat." n Older, sicker patients often uncomfortable speaking up about problems during hospital stays By Megan Knowles A lthough patients are encouraged to share safety con- cerns with providers, 30 percent do not always feel comfortable speaking up, a study published in BMJ Quality & Safety found. The cross-sectional study involved eight hospitals in Mary- land and Washington, D.C. The researchers used post- discharge patient survey data to assess how comfortable patients felt sharing concerns related to their care. Of about 10,000 patients who provided valid responses, 4,958 (48.6 percent) said they had a problem during hospi- talization. Of these patients, 1,514 (30.5 percent) said they did not always feel comfortable speaking up. Predictors of having a problem during a hospital stay included age, health status and education level. The study found patients who were older, those who reported worse overall health, those who reported worse mental health, those who were admitted through the emergency depart- ment and those who did not speak English at home were less likely to always feel comfortable speaking up. Patients who were not always comfortable speaking up also gave lower ratings on nurse communication, physician communication and overall hospital ratings. These patients were significantly less likely to recommend the hospital than patients who always felt comfortable speaking up. "Patients frequently experience problems in care during hospitalization, and many do not feel comfortable speaking up," the study authors wrote. "Creating conditions for pa- tients to be comfortable speaking up may result in service recovery opportunities and improved patient experience." These efforts should consider how health literacy and men- tal health affect patient engagement with safety initiatives, the researchers said. n "We want everyone to know how to save a life with hands-only CPR." -Holly Andersen, MD, a cardiologist at NewYork-Presbterian

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