JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association
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Introduction of a rapid response team (RRT) has been shown to decrease mortality and cardiopulmonary arrests outside of the intensive care unit (ICU) in adult inpatients. No published studies to date show significant reductions in mortality or cardiopulmonary arrests in pediatric inpatients. ⋯ Implementation of an RRT was associated with a statistically significant reduction in hospital-wide mortality rate and code rate outside of the pediatric ICU setting.
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Several studies suggest improved survival among patients in whom a higher number of nodes are examined after colectomy for colon cancer. The National Quality Forum and other organizations recently endorsed a 12-node minimum as a measure of hospital quality. ⋯ The number of lymph nodes hospitals examine following colectomy for colon cancer is not associated with staging, use of adjuvant chemotherapy, or patient survival. Efforts by payers and professional organizations to increase node examination rates may have limited value as a public health intervention.