Six year audit of cardiac arrests and medical emergency team calls in an Australian outer metropolitan teaching hospital
- 29 November 2007
- Vol. 335 (7631), 1210-1212
- https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.39385.534236.47
Abstract
Problem In-hospital cardiac arrest often represents failure of optimal clinical care. The use of medical emergency teams to prevent such events is controversial. In-hospital cardiac arrests have been reduced in several single centre historical control studies, but the only randomised prospective study showed no such benefit. In our hospital an important problem was failure to call the medical emergency team or cardiac arrest team when, before in-hospital cardiac arrest, patients had fulfilled the criteria for calling the team. Design Single centre, prospective audit of cardiac arrests and data on use of the medical emergency team during 2000 to 2005. Setting 400 bed general outer suburban metropolitan teaching hospital. Strategies for change Three initiatives in the hospital to improve use of the medical emergency team: orientation programme for first year doctors, professional development course for medical registrars, and the evolving role of liaison intensive care unit nurses. Key measures for improvement Incidence of cardiac arrests. Effects of the change Incidence of cardiac arrests decreased 24% per year, from 2.4/1000 admissions in 2000 to 0.66/1000 admissions in 2005. Lessons learnt Medical emergency teams can be efficacious when supported with a multidisciplinary, multifaceted education system for clinical staff.Keywords
This publication has 19 references indexed in Scilit:
- The objective medical emergency team activation criteria: A case–control studyResuscitation, 2007
- Investigating the effectiveness of critical care outreach services: a systematic reviewIntensive Care Medicine, 2006
- Findings of the First Consensus Conference on Medical Emergency Teams*Critical Care Medicine, 2006
- Association between clinically abnormal observations and subsequent in-hospital mortality: a prospective studyResuscitation, 2004
- MET: the emergency medical team or the medical education team?2004
- Effects of a medical emergency team on reduction of incidence of and mortality from unexpected cardiac arrests in hospital: preliminary studyBMJ, 2002
- Antecedents to hospital deathsInternal Medicine Journal, 2001
- Reducing readmissions to the intensive care unitHeart & Lung, 1999
- Recognising clinical instability in hospital patients before cardiac arrest or unplanned admission to intensive care: A pilot study in a tertiary‐care hospitalThe Medical Journal of Australia, 1999
- SURVIVAL AFTER CARDIAC ARREST IN HOSPITALThe Lancet, 1977