Abstract 11522: Reduction of Cardiac Arrests: The Experience of a Novel Service Centric Rapid Response Team

Background: The impact of rapid response teams (RRTs) on number of cardiac arrests (CAs) is unclear. We hypothesize that a novel, service centric (SC), budget neutral RRT model can impact the incidence of CA by bringing critical care expertise to the bedside of a deteriorating patient. The SC RRT model includes a medical provider from the medical/surgical service to which the patient is admitted (cardiology, medicine, general surgery, etc.), a critical care RN and a respiratory therapist. Methods: A retrospective analysis was performed on prospectively collected data on adults in a 867-bed tertiary care hospital for the years 2007 to 2012. The SC RRT program started on 12/23/2007 in Cardiology and expanded hospital wide during 2008/2009, maturing at 10 teams. CA rate was adjusted for hospital care days. Pairwise comparisons of CA rate between 3-time periods were performed for ICU, Non-ICU and combined ICU/Non-ICU patients. Results: Of the total 1,140,233 hospital care days analyzed from 2007 through 2012, 745 patients had CA. The overall CA rate was significantly higher in 2007 than in 2008/09 and 2010/12 (0.84 vs 0.59 and 0.84 vs 0.64 per 1000 care days, p Conclusions: A novel budget neutral service centric RRT program is associated with a reduction in the overall incidence of CAs in both ICUs and non-ICUs. A potential explanation for these observations is earlier intervention in the care of unstable patients by an expanded group of expert caregivers.