The effectiveness of a focused rapid response team on reducing the incidence of cardiac arrest in the general ward

Rapid response teams have been adopted to prevent unexpected in-ward cardiac arrest. However, there is no convincing evidence of optimal operation with rapid response team. Our aim was to address the impact of focused rapid response team on the safety of patients in wards. Comparison of focused with extended rapid response teams was performed in single center. The extended team operated on adult patients in whole ward (both medical and nonmedical ward) 24 hours per day, 7 days per week during 2012. In 2015, the operational time of the focused team was office hours from Monday to Friday and study population were limited to adult patients in the nonmedical ward. Unexpected in-ward cardiac arrests were compared between the extended team and focused team periods. During the focused team period, there was significant reduction in cardiac arrest per 1000 admissions in whole ward compared to the before the rapid response team period (1.09 vs 1.67, P < .001). Compared to that of the extended team period (1.42), there was also a significant reduction in cardiac arrest rate (P = .04). The cardiac arrest rate of nonmedical ward patients was also significantly decreased in the focused team period compared to that before the rapid response team period (0.43 vs 0.95, P < .001). Compared to the extended team period (0.64), there was a marginally significant reduction in cardiac arrest of nonmedical ward patients (P = .05). The focused rapid response team was associated with a reduced incidence of unexpected in-ward cardiac arrest. Further research on the optimal composition and operational time is needed.