Millions of lives are lost each year when hospital care teams miss the warning signs and don’t respond quickly enough to a patient’s rapidly deteriorating condition. To help catch patients before their condition reaches a “code blue” status when admission to the ICU becomes necessary, The Joint Commission requires hospitals to have a process for recognizing and responding to changes in a patient’s condition. One way to do this is by providing a Rapid Response Team (also known as a medical emergency team).
The Rapid Response Team at Stony Brook Eastern Long Island Hospital supplements usual medical care to enhance the safety and well-being of our patients. Within minutes of being called, our team of experts arrives at the patient’s bedside to assess the situation, provide intensive monitoring, and attempt to reverse a patient’s deterioration by developing a treatment plan. Our Rapid Response Team doesn’t take over the care of the patient, but instead, facilitates the process of getting a higher level of care when needed.
Who can call the Rapid Response Team? A bedside nurse, a physician, a family member, or anyone who visits the patient’s room and senses that “something doesn’t seem right.” To monitor and assess the effectiveness of our Rapid Response Team, data is collected and analyzed regularly.
