• Anne Mitchell, Marilyn Schatz, and Heather Francis.
• Anne Mitchell is a clinical nurse specialist in the emergency department and intensive care unit at Banner Baywood Medical Center, Mesa, Arizona.Marilyn Schatz is a clinical manager in the intensive care unit at Banner Baywood Medical Center.Heather Francis is the director of nursing of the intensive care unit, dialysis, at Banner Baywood Medical Center. anne.mitchell@bannerhealth.com.
• Crit Care Nurse. 2014 Jun 1;34(3):41-55; quiz 56.

AbstractRapid response teams have been introduced to intervene in the care of patients whose condition deteriorates unexpectedly by bringing clinical experts quickly to the patient's bedside. Evidence supporting the need to overcome failure to deliver optimal care in hospitals is robust; whether rapid response teams demonstrate benefit by improving patient safety and reducing the occurrence of adverse events remains controversial. Despite inconsistent evidence regarding the effectiveness of rapid response teams, concerns regarding care and costly consequences of unaddressed deterioration in patients' condition have prompted many hospitals to implement rapid response teams as a patient safety strategy. A cost-neutral structure for a rapid response team led by a nurse from the intensive care unit was implemented with the goal of reducing cardiopulmonary arrests occurring outside the intensive care unit. The results of 6 years' experience indicate that a sustainable and effective rapid response team response can be put into practice without increasing costs or adding positions and can decrease the percentage of cardiopulmonary arrests occurring outside the intensive care unit.©2014 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses.

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