Timing and interventions of emergency teams during the MERIT study

Arthas Flabouris, Jack Chen, Ken Hillman, Rinaldo Bellomo, Simon Finfer, MERIT Study Investigators for the Simpson Centre and the ANZICS Clinical Trials Group

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

43 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Aims: To examine interventions and timing of emergency team calls in hospitals with or without a medical emergency team (MET).

Methods: Interventions were recorded, categorized and classified as critical care interventions (e.g. airway intervention, ventilation and use of inotropic drugs); ward level interventions (e.g. fluids, oxygen by mask); assessment, physical examination and investigations.

Results: Only 5 of the 2376 calls were free of critical care interventions. For non-cardiac arrest-related calls, MET hospitals had a lower proportion of airway, circulation and drug-related interventions and a higher proportion of ward level interventions. The majority of calls were between 0601 and 1200 h and cardiac arrest survival was greatest in the 1200-2400 h period. Overall median time at the scene was 25 min.

Conclusions: Nearly all emergency team calls required critical care type interventions. Emergency team calls show a unique temporal pattern for both MET and control hospitals. These findings have important organizational and resource-related implications for hospitals evaluating and establishing rapid response systems.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)25-30
Number of pages6
JournalResuscitation
Volume81
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2010
Externally publishedYes

Keywords

  • Medical emergency team
  • Interventions
  • Cardiac arrest
  • Intensive Care

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