Purpose of the study: The Immediate Life Support (ILS) course of the European Resuscitation Council is an interdisciplinary one-day course. Covered topics include recognition and management of the deteriorating patient, as well as life support until the arrival of the medical emergency team. ILS courses were introduced in Austria by 2007 at Stolzalpe State Hospital[1]. The purpose of the study is to evaluate the progress of ILS courses in Austria within the first ten years.

Materials and methods: Course data was extracted using the ERC course management system CoSy. The following parameters were included: course identifier, course type (basic or refresher), course organizer, course date, course location, number of participants. Data was extracted from 1.1.2007 to 31.12.2017.

Results: Within the first ten years 778 ILS basic courses and 442 ILS refresher courses were conducted in Austria. In total, 9613 participants followed a basic course, whereas 4236 followed a refresher course. The number of yearly courses increased from 30 to 208 between 2007 and 2017. The number of yearly participants increased from 386  to 2427. ILS courses took place in 24 different hospitals located in 5 Austrian counties. Additional sites include air rescue stations, medical training facilities and general practitioners.

Conclusion: The high number of ILS courses shows that certified training programs gain increasing importance within the clinical setting. The interdisciplinary setting regarding participants and faculty may represent a potential success factor. The number of participants shows that it is feasible to restructure and conduct certified life support training within hospitals. Other parameters such as number of medical emergency alarms or survival-to-hospital-discharge were not investigated. However, a study conducted in Great Britain proofed a significant reduction in medical emergency alarms in a 1200-bed-hospital[2]. Further investigations regarding effects of ILS courses are still ongoing in Austria.

References
[1] Schlieber J (2008) Implementierung von Immediate Life Support (ILS) Kursen in zwei peripheren Krankenhäusern Österreichs. AIC Salzburg 2008
[2] Spearpoint KG, Gruber PC, Brett SJ (2009) Impact of the Immediate Life Support course on the incidence and outcome of in-hospital cardiac arrest calls: An observational study over 6 years. Resuscitation 80:638-643

1 - Retrospective: 10 Year ERC Immediate Life Support Courses in Austria