For: Immediate Release, March 6, 2006
From: Crystal Keener, Community Relations
535-8289

HRMC Employs Rapid Response Team

Halifax Regional Medical Center is implementing a Rapid Response Team. The purpose of the team is to bring advanced assessment skills to patients before resuscitative skills are needed and a “code blue” has to be called. The team is composed of an Emergency Care nurse and respiratory therapist and is part of the Institute of Healthcare Improvement’s nationwide patient safety campaign.

According to IHI, over 3,000 U.S. hospitals have joined the 100,000 Lives Campaign, which is an initiative to engage hospitals in a commitment to implement changes proven to improve patient care and prevent avoidable deaths.  The 100,000 Lives Campaign is the first national effort to promote saving a specified number of lives by a target date of June 2006.

IHI reports that there is a higher instance of death among code blue situations happening outside critical care units like the ICU. That’s why the institute recommended developing Rapid Response Teams to “catch patients before their conditions worsen and then stabilize them before being transferred to another level of care,” says Marty Jones, a RRT member and chairman of the RRT Committee at HRMC.

In response to the 100,000 Lives Campaign, HRMC organized a Rapid Response Team Committee last November. The six-member group began developing Rapid Response Team protocols and initiatives and recently started a one month trial on the hospital’s Fifth Floor Medical Unit. “Once we feel confident in our process, we’ll implement the RR Team hospital-wide,” said committee member Debbie Sanders.

The intent of the RRT approach is to provide immediate early assessment and stabilization recommendations in order to reduce the incidence of patient death. In the event a family member or visitor notices deteriorating health or worsening symptoms they can notify any nearby nurse, who will then assess the patient and determine if the RRT is needed. A call to the team can be made by any licensed healthcare worker as requested by a patient’s caregiver, visitor or family member.

Jones said a set protocol developed by the committee and approved by hospital medical staff allows the RRT to perform blood work and EKGs while the physician is being notified. This work is essential to determining the patient’s condition and possibly avoiding cardiac arrest or respiratory failure. IHI reported a 40 to 60 percent drop in code blue calls outside critical care units in the hospitals that had initiated Rapid Response Teams.

Photo from left: Rapid Response Team members Marty Jones, Respiratory Therapist and Emergency Department nurse Charlotte Ferguson.