One of the interventions of IHI’s 5 Million Lives Campaign is the Rapid Response Team, a small team of critical care experts available to rush to the bedside of any patient who shows early signs of deteriorating health. Working with the patient’s nurse, these teams — typically composed of a critical care nurse, a respiratory therapist, and sometimes a physician or physician assistant — can often prevent serious incidents such as cardiac arrest by intervening at the first sign of trouble.
Now, some hospitals are discovering that the Rapid Response Team that includes a pharmacist is even more effective, to ensure that medications are available, and, where appropriate, to help determine the cause of a patient’s decline and to offer expert clinical advice.
At Johns Hopkins Children’s Center in Baltimore, Maryland, Elizabeth Hunt, MD, MPH, attending pediatric intensivist, says that pharmacists play an invaluable role on the team, helping to prepare medications so nurses can focus on attending to the patient’s immediate needs. “This significantly eases the burden of the first responder nurse and the PICU nurses,” says Hunt. “Now the team keeps functioning while the drug is prepared, instead of a key player turning away from the patient.” In addition, says Hunt, pharmacists have quick access to drugs not typically stocked on patient units.
Having a pharmacist available for pediatric Rapid Response Team calls can be especially important because children’s medication needs are harder to anticipate than adults. “In adults, you can pre-prepare some meds,” says Hunt. “But because children come in so many sizes, you have to draw up the right dose for each child.”
06/01/2008
