Quality Patient Care

Patient Safety Initiatives

Rapid Response Team

A Rapid Response Team is a team of clinicians who bring critical care expertise to the bedside. Simply put, the Rapid Response Team is comprised of clinicians - doctors, nurses, technicians, etc. - who respond to immediate Calls to Action. Rapid Response Teams are deployed to address quickly deteriorating patient conditions that could be critical/life threatening. Usually, Rapid Response Teams are called into action to care for patients who are showing the early signs of suffering from cardiac or respiratory arrest.

Research has shown that before patients suffer a full cardiac or respiratory arrest there are signs, that if identified early enough, can prevent a full arrest. Rapid Response Teams are established with the goal to respond to a “spark” (patient complaints, signs, symptoms) before it becomes a “forest fire” (cardiac or respiratory arrest.)

At Randolph Hospital our Rapid Response Team is producing positive patient outcomes, having decreased the number of full cardiac and respiratory arrest codes. By calling codes earlier, enlisting the Rapid Response Team, the patient is getting the proper medical interventions earlier in the process before the condition escalates.