Annals of intensive care
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Annals of intensive care · Jan 2012
Incidence of cardiac arrests and unexpected deaths in surgical patients before and after implementation of a rapid response system.
Rapid response systems (RRSs) are considered an important tool for improving patient safety. We studied the effect of an RRS on the incidence of cardiac arrests and unexpected deaths. ⋯ Introduction of an RRS resulted in a 50% reduction in cardiac arrest rates and/or unexpected death. However, this decrease was not statistically significant partly due to the low base-line incidence. Moreover, delayed activation due to the two-tiered medical emergency team activation procedure and suboptimal adherence of the ward staff to the RRS procedures may have further abated the positive results.
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Annals of intensive care · Jan 2012
Intrahospital transport of critically ill patients (excluding newborns) recommendations of the Société de Réanimation de Langue Française (SRLF), the Société Française d'Anesthésie et de Réanimation (SFAR), and the Société Française de Médecine d'Urgence (SFMU).
Critically ill adult patients often require multiple examinations in the hospital and need transport from one department to another, or even between hospitals. However, to date, no guidelines exist regarding optimum practices for transport of these fragile patients. We present recommendations for intrahospital transport of critically ill patients, excluding newborns, developed by an expert group of the French-Language Society of Intensive Care (Société de Réanimation de Langue Française (SRLF), the Société Française d'Anesthésie et de Réanimation (SFAR), and the Société Française de Médecine d'Urgence (SFMU). The recommendations cover five fields of application: epidemiology of adverse events; equipment, monitoring, and maintenance; preparation of patient before transport; human resources and training for caregivers involved in transport processes; and guidelines for planning, structure, and traceability of transport processes.