News Room - Press Releases

News Release
For Immediate Release
For more information, contact:
Julie Paulina: (757) 889-5910
Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center Marketing Manager

NORFOLK, VA. (February 13, 2006) - A new "team approach" to inpatient safety was implemented at Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center on Feb. 20, 2006, as part of its ongoing participation to the IHI’s “Save 100K Lives” Campaign and its commitment to quality. 

The Rapid Response Team (RRT), comprised of a respiratory therapist and critical care nurse, serves to assess and stabilize patients, assists with communication to attending physicians, educates and supports the floor staff and can assist in the transfer of that patient to the ICU.

“The team provides a pre-organized, standard, trained response of professionals and equipment to a patient in crisis,” states Thomas Thames, MD, vice president of medical affairs for DePaul. “In other words, an intensive care unit brought to the bedside.”

The RRT is dispatched whenever a nurse observes deterioration in a patient's condition or is simply concerned. The response is similar to that generated by a respiratory or cardiac arrest, but is enacted before those crises happen. Floor nurses have been provided the following criteria to assist them in knowing when to call the RRT: significant variations in a patient’s respiratory rate, too fast (greater than 130) or too slow (less than 40) of a heart rate, hypotension or marked hypertension, uncontrolled pain, change in level of consciousness, critically diminished urinary output, major fever, or if they just think that something is not right with the patient. RRTs earmark the future standard for care as the initiation of this single initiative has been shown to reduce in-hospital mortality rates by 50-65%.

In July, with the introduction of the DMC hospitalist program, a physician will be added as a critical core member of the RRT.

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Bon Secours Hampton Roads Health System is a leading health care organization known for providing care for the whole person with grace and clinical distinction. Bon Secours brings together a network of hospitals, primary care practices, ambulatory care sites and continuing care facilities to provide quality health care services to the residents of Hampton Roads. Bon Secours, which employs more than 4,500, includes: Bon Secours DePaul Medical Center, Bon Secours Maryview Medical Center, Mary Immaculate Hospital, Bon Secours Health Center at Harbour View, Bon Secours Maryview Nursing Care Center and St. Francis Nursing Center.