Hospital ICU "SWAT" Teams Help Save Lives

Hospitals can increase their ability to respond to medical emergencies, and reduce deaths from heart attacks, by implementing a "SWAT-like" medical team. By having a team prepared to act as a portable intensive care unit, this unit can have a positive impact on the health care provided to patients in emergency situations.

In a recent press release, researchers at Toronto General Hospital, University Health Network discovered that they were able to reduce the number of heart attacks that patients suffered by 7 percent, and reduce the number of times that patients stopped breathing and needed mechanical help to breath by 25 percent.

Because of the intensive care that was provided to patients, only 21 percent of the patients that were treated needed to be moved to the intensive care unit. Using this data, researchers determined that these statistics equated to saving 80 lives a year.

This data was obtained over a one-year time frame, beginning in May 2005 and ending in May 2006.

"Our team is a portable intensive care unit (ICU) which responds within minutes to a call for help. By responding quickly, we can prevent patients from getting so sick that their heart stops or they stop breathing. Despite what television or the movies show, if a patient's heart stops while in the hospital, the chances of survival are poor - about 12%," says Dr. Stuart Reynolds, an ICU physician at UHN who is also the Ontario physician lead in expanding the teams throughout the province.

An ICU physician, nurse, respiratory therapist comprise the specialty team. They are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Additionally, when a patient is discharged from the ICU, that patient is monitored for an additional 48 hours. All of the staff treating the patient are educated to be aware of any symptoms that might indicate that the patient's condition is deteriorating, and are encouraged to call the "SWAT-like" team for help.

The team becomes an extra set of eyes and ears for nurses on the floors that receive patients from the ICU. Additionally, after a patient has been in the intensive care unit, the team can act as a resource for the families of these patients.

In addition to saving lives, many patients who receive treatment from the specialized team are often in the hospital for a much shorter time than they would have been had the team not been able to respond quickly to their medical emergency.

Source:
http://www.newswise.com/p/articles/view/535400/