• Rebecca Teuma Custo and Josef Trapani.
• Intensive Therapy Unit, Mater Dei Hospital, Msida, MSD 2090, Malta. Electronic address: rebecca.teuma-custo@gov.mt.
• Intensive Crit Care Nurs. 2020 Aug 1; 59: 102848.

BackgroundRapid response systems were created to improve recognition of and response to deterioration of general ward patients.AimThis literature review aimed to evaluate the evidence on whether rapid response systems decrease in-hospital mortality and non-intensive care unit cardiac arrests.MethodSix databases (MEDLINE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health Literature, SCOPUS, Web of Science and PubMed) were systematically searched for primary studies published between 1st January 2014 and 31st October 2017, recruiting general ward patients, where the intervention involved introducing/maintaining a rapid response system, the comparison referred to a hospital setting without a rapid response system and the outcomes included mortality and cardiac arrests.ResultsFifteen studies met eligibility criteria: one stepped wedge cluster randomised controlled trial, one concurrent cohort controlled study and thirteen historically controlled studies. Thirteen studies investigated mortality of which seven reported statistically significant findings in favour of rapid response systems. Thirteen studies investigated cardiac arrests, of which eight reported statistically significant findings in favour of rapid response systems.ConclusionEvidence suggests that when the process of introducing/maintaining a rapid response system is successful and under certain favourable conditions, rapid response systems significantly decrease mortality and cardiac arrests.Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

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