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Survival in hospitalized children and adults after cardiac arrest outside the ICU is poor. To examine the effect of a pediatric rapid response team (RRT), researchers compared mortality rates and code rates outside the ICU during 56 months before (22,037 admissions) and 19 months after (7257 admission) introduction of an RRT at a quaternary children’s hospital. The RRT included a pediatric ICU-trained fellow or attending physician, an ICU nurse and respiratory therapist, and a nursing supervisor. The team was expected to respond within 5 minutes after a staff call for acute change or serious clinical deterioration in a patient.
The RRT was called 143 times during the 19 months after implementation (average, 7.5 calls per month), and 129 of t…