Rapid Response Teams Don't Cut Hospital Heart Attacks, Death Rates

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Also, the number of deaths after a cardiac arrest did not change after the rapid response team was in place. Before the team, 77.9 percent of patients who arrested died, compared with 76.1 percent after the team began its work, Chan's group found.

In addition, overall hospital deaths did not change after the team was in place. Before the rapid response team, in-hospital deaths were 3.22 per 100 patients, and after intervention the death rate was 3.09 per 100 patients.

"Our findings raise questions whether or not hospitals should be investing huge financial and personnel resources in these teams without a demonstrable benefit," Chan said.

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The report is published in the Dec. 3 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association.

There may be other programs that might reduce cardiac arrests and death in the hospital, Chan noted. "But it's not clear that we can even move the mortality," he said. "Moving mortality on the hospital level is a monumental task."

One expert thinks hospitals should use their resources in areas of proven value.

"The evidence supporting any benefits of rapid response teams has been tenuous at best," said Dr. Gregg C. Fonarow, director of the Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center at the University of California, Los Angeles. "Yet, based on recommendations to implement rapid response teams by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, hospitals across the country have diverted substantial resources and personnel to create and staff such teams."

This latest study failed to show reductions in hospital-wide code rates or mortality with a rapid response team, Fonarow added. "Hospitals should focus on performance improvement and patient safety initiatives, which are evidence-based," he said.

More information

For more information on cardiac arrest, visit the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

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