Clinical Observational Study of the Rapid Response System in General Ward in China

Abstract

Yan Wang, Haiyan Wu, Chang Liu, Suping Ran, Baoyu Wang

Rapid Response Systems (RRS) had emerged as an approach to identify hospitalized patients who are at high risk of clinical deterioration. We performed a retrospective observational study and included inpatients from May, 2016 to December, 2019. This study aimed to observe and analyze the effect of introducing RRS in general wards, and discuss the main problems occurring in hospital in China. The critical rapid response team was called to 312 cases in 44 months. The top three reasons for calling them were unconsciousness (29.79%), respiratory distress (19.17%), and hypotension (18.60%). The effective call rate was 91.99%, and only 68.27% of cases were transferred to the ICU. The top three advanced life supports used for patients transferred to ICU were mechanical ventilation (89.67%), blood purification (85.92%), and vasoactive drugs application (82.16%). After the introduction of the RRS, the rate of unplanned admissions to the ICU increased, but the incidence of cardiac arrest decreased significantly. The RRS can improve the safety of inpatients in general wards, but the criteria for calling the rapid response team, and scoring tool used, are worthy of further discussion.

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