OKAYAMA UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL

What is Rapid Response Team？

The Rapid Response Team (RRT), based on the Rapid Response System (RRS), is a special team for patient emergencies at our hospital. The team consisting of multidisciplinary staff mainly from the Intensive Care Unit, Department of Emergency, and Department of Nursing, is defined according to the clear RRS activation criteria: it responds to an emergency with no hesitation. The RRT holds clinical conferences and management team meetings every month with physicians and nurses of the ward that called the team to verify that the precursory symptoms of the emergency were detected appropriately to activate the team in a timely manner, and to address issues of RRT letters for education.
To decrease the incidence of unexpected cardiopulmonary arrest and to provide safer and more reliable medical care for patients, we recognize and intervene at an early stage when encountering unforeseen signs of cardiopulmonary arrest at the hospital. Nurses of the RRT rush to the clinical scene on the request of the medical staff according to the RRS activation criteria. There, they assess the patient status for timely intervention and verify arrangements with anesthesiologists and emergency physicians. The team conducts cross-cutting activities in the hospital to recognize and intervene when encountering unforeseen signs of cardiopulmonary arrest in the hospital at an early stage, thereby decreasing cases of unexpected cardiopulmonary arrest and providing safer and more reliable medical care for patients.