Medical Emergency Teams/Rapid Response Teams: Purpose and Benefits

Medical Emergency Teams/Rapid Response
Teams: Purpose and Benefits

Medical emergency response teams, also known as rapid response teams, can play a vital role
in the reduction of respiratory and/or cardiac arrests and improve patient outcomes. These
teams usually consist of healthcare professionals who bring critical care knowledge to the
patient’s bedside.
The idea for rapid response teams was born after the Institute for Healthcare Improvement
developed a plan to improve patient safety. Six initiatives were developed and implemented
by the institute, including rapid response teams.
What Goes Wrong?

It is important to understand the factors that contribute to a patient’s declining condition not
being identified until a life-threatening situation develops. In some cases, a patient may
develop cardiac or respiratory arrest without prior warning, but in most instances there are
warning signs and a gradual deterioration of the patient’s condition. These early warning
signs may not be recognized for a few common reasons.
One reason a patient’s decline may not be identified prior to a life-threatening event is a
failure in communication. Failure in communication may occur either between the patient
and the staff or between staff members. Essentially, things slip through the crack. For
example, during patient report at the change of shift, relevant information may not be given
or heard. In other cases, a patient may not report symptoms to the nurse. Not having all the
available information can prevent a clear picture of what is going on with the patient.
Another reason why some conditions are not caught early is failure to recognize a change in
status or a patient’s deteriorating condition. In other cases, symptoms are recognized too late
to prevent respiratory failure or cardiac arrest.
Purpose and Benefits of a Rapid Response Team

By identifying unstable patients who may be headed for respiratory failure, cardiac arrest,
stroke or another serious situation, staff can intervene and prevent such an event. For
example, patients often develop signs such as increased respiratory rate, anxiety and changes
in mental status before a cardiac arrest. Identifying a patient in the early stages of decline can
prevent a worsening situation.
Members of a rapid response team are trained and have the expertise to recognize early signs
of many conditions, such as stroke, sepsis, myocardial infarction and impending respiratory
failure. By identifying these conditions early, appropriate interventions and treatments can be
implemented.
According to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, rapid response teams can decrease the
number of cardiac arrests, deaths from cardiac arrests, number of days in the intensive care
unit after cardiac arrest and number of impatient deaths. Knowing the benefits of having a
rapid response team, it is not surprising that increasing numbers of healthcare facilities are
using these teams.
Rapid Response Team Suggestions

In order to develop a successful rapid response team, consider some of the suggestions below.
Include team members with varied expertise: A critical component of a rapid response
team is the varied expertise the team members bring. When implementing such a team,
careful consideration of which healthcare professionals will be part of the rapid response
team is important. This may seem easy and obvious, but making sure your team has diverse
knowledge will make for a well-rounded group. The number of members of a rapid response
team may vary. Some hospitals choose to have one or two team members while others have
five or six.
In many instances, hospitals choose to include a critical care nurse, respiratory therapist and
nursing supervisor. Some hospitals also include a physician or a physician’s assistant and a
pharmacist as part of the rapid response team. Whichever team members are included, they
must be able to respond to a page immediately.
Develop protocols: It is helpful to develop protocols that team members can utilize when
responding to any given situation. For example, instead of having to call the physician for an
order to draw an arterial blood gas, an ABG can be part of the standard RRT protocol.
Having protocols saves time in obtaining physician orders and may allow for faster
assessment of the situation and subsequent treatment.
Establish criteria for activating the rapid response team: Make sure healthcare staff have
a clear understanding of the criteria used to call an RRT. Nurses and other healthcare
professionals in all patient care areas should be aware of the indications to activate a rapid
response. Examples of criteria for a rapid response may include an acute change in heart rate
above 130 or below 40, decrease in the level of consciousness or a decrease in oxygen
saturation below 90 percent with supplemental oxygenation.
Article Sources
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Establish a Rapid Response Team.

http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/Changes/EstablishaRapidResponseTeam.aspx Accessed
July 2014.
National Institute of Health. Rapid Response Teams in Hospitals Increase Patient Safety.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2873718/ Accessed July 2014.

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Medical Emergency Teams/Rapid Response Teams: Purpose and Benefits

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Medical Emergency Teams/Rapid Response

Teams: Purpose and Benefits

What Goes Wrong?

Purpose and Benefits of a Rapid Response Team

Rapid Response Team Suggestions

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Establish a Rapid Response Team.

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