• Paulo David Scatena Gonçales, Joyce Assis Polessi, Lital Moro Bass, Gisele de Paula Dias Santos, Paula Kiyomi Onaga Yokota, Claudia Regina Laselva, Constantino Fernandes Junior, Miguel Cendoroglo Neto, Marcus Estanislao, Vanessa Teich, and Camila Sardenberg.
• Hospital Israelita Albert Einstein, São Paulo, SP, Brazil.
• Einstein (Sao Paulo). 2012 Oct 1;10(4):442-8.

ObjectiveTo evaluate the impact of the implementation of a rapid response team on the rate of cardiorespiratory arrests in mortality associated with cardiorespiratory arrests and on in-hospital mortality in a high complexity general hospital.MethodsA retrospective analysis of cardiorespiratory arrests and in-hospital mortality events before and after implementation of a rapid response team. The period analyzed covered 19 months before intervention by the team (August 2005 to February 2007) and 19 months after the intervention (March 2007 to September 2008).ResultsDuring the pre-intervention period, 3.54 events of cardiorespiratory arrest/1,000 discharges and 16.27 deaths/1,000 discharges were noted. After the intervention, there was a reduction in the number of cardiorespiratory arrests and in the rate of in-hospital mortality; respectively, 1.69 events of cardiorespiratory arrest/1,000 discharges (p < 0.001) and 14.34 deaths/1,000 discharges (p = 0.029).ConclusionThe implementation of the rapid response team may have caused a significant reduction in the number of cardiorespiratory arrests. It was estimated that during the period from March 2007 to September 2008, the intervention probably saved 67 lives.

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