THE ASSOCIATION BETWEEN DELAYED ACTIVATION OF RAPID RESPONSE TEAMS AND PATIENT MORTALITY AND MORBIDITY

Abstract

Objectives: The objective of this thesis is to explore the association between delayed rapid response team activation and patient mortality and morbidity in adult in-patients. Methods: Study 1 presents a protocol for a systematic review of literature regarding the association of delayed activation of rapid response teams and patient outcomes. Study 2 contains the results of the conducted systematic review, performing a search of the literature to critically appraise, aggregate, and present a narrative synthesis of included studies. The final study examines the association between delayed rapid response team activation and hospital mortality, ICU transfer, and cardiopulmonary arrest risk in a retrospective observational cohort study conducted as part of the “Hospital without Code Blues” initiative at Hamilton Health Sciences. Results: Studies included in the systematic review report an association between delayed activation and patient mortality and ICU transfer odds. Results of study three find that these delays may not be associated with patient mortality, but are significantly associated with ICU transfer events and a composite outcome of patient in-hospital mortality, ICU transfer, and cardiopulmonary arrest. Overall, patients experiencing a delayed rapid response team activation were at greater odds of experiencing a negative event during their course of stay in hospital. Conclusions: This thesis presents findings that suggest delayed activation of rapid response teams is associated with an increase in patient mortality and ICU transfers. Increased durations of delay are associated with increased odds of experiencing the above events.