Let the chaos begin....family initiating rapid response teams

[sistasoul]

Hi All,

My facility is implementing a new policy. When a patient is admitted to the floor we are now to explain to them 211 help. This policy informs patients they can call this rapid response number of 211 if they feel their is a critical change in their condition that is not being met or followed up by staff. This is only supposed to be used if the patient or family feels they are in dire medical jeopardy. I can just imagine all of our detoxers and chronic med seekers calling because they feel their narcotic needs are not being met. Then we will have our real needy, demanding patients calling because their call bell is not being answered in 30 seconds or they do not like their meal tray. I feel this will tie up our ICU nurses which are our rapid response nurses for crazy reasons. Our educator says this system is not abused in other hospitals but I just have a hard time believing that.

When the patient calls this number the nurse will now be held responsible for the reason for the call. This will be another piece of documentation and explaing to do on an admit that will take us away from the bedside. I work on a neuro/ortho floor and we rarely have any dire or life threatening situations (thank God). I can just see this being abused. Does anyone else have a system like? How is it working out or not working out? I think it is going to be interesting as rapid responses are being called all over the place. This is going to be almost comical. I cannot wait to see all of the crazy things people will call about.

Let the games begin!!!

[pedcentral]

We have a rapid response team at our facility, that family, patient, or nurse can initiate. Family and patient are instructed upon admission regarding the progress. I ALWAYs tell my patients this is to be used when you feel your voice is not being heard by nursing or medical staff. It is not to be used to be toileted, or fore a new pitcher of water. We have had this in our facility for I think over 3 years and it has been a life saver. We have never had a patient abuse this system. I personally have called 3 on my patients, all which were needed. These types of systems have saved numerous lives at hospitals all across the country!!

Try to really embrace this at your facility. When you need to call one for the right reason you will see how great these systems are.

[sistasoul]

We have a rapid response team at our facility, that family, patient, or nurse can initiate. Family and patient are instructed upon admission regarding the progress. I ALWAYs tell my patients this is to be used when you feel your voice is not being heard by nursing or medical staff. It is not to be used to be toileted, or fore a new pitcher of water. We have had this in our facility for I think over 3 years and it has been a life saver. We have never had a patient abuse this system. I personally have called 3 on my patients, all which were needed. These types of systems have saved numerous lives at hospitals all across the country!!

Try to really embrace this at your facility. When you need to call one for the right reason you will see how great these systems are.

We have a rapid response team at my hospital. I have had to use it too. They are great to have when a patient needs it. I am happy to hear that the patients are using this appropriately.

[nursej22, MSN, RN]

We are not required to explain the patient/family access to calling a RRT, but there is a large, colorful poster on the wall giving people the option to call if they have a concern about condition that not being addressed to their satisfaction. I don't remember the exact wording, but it indicates that it is for a health concern.

We had the same worries when it was posted in each room, and I think it's in the "welcome to our hospital" packet that everyone is supposed to get. But we really haven't had a lot of abuse of the system. Our stat nurse is pretty good at talking to people who call for ice water because they don't call again.

On a related note, one evening when I was filling in as charge nurse, I get this call from risk management about a complaint made by a patient earlier that day. Apparently this lol what quite upset that a workman had come into her room and used her bathroom, specifically the toilet. I was asked to speak to the lady because the risk manager had to leave. So I go talk to her to let her verbalize her concerns.

Oh yes, 2 men came into her room today, one went in the bathroom and locked the door, while the other stood outside. When man #1 had finished, they both left, and never said a word to her. Nope, nope neither one ID'd himself, nope, nope they didn't have name tags, they just came in and used her toilet. She was just sure that these guys had come up 4 floors, came halfway down the hall to a room directly across from the nurses station to use the bathroom of a patient.

So I call maintenance, yeah, they'd come up to check the ceramic tiles that had been replaced last week, of course they ID'd themselves, had name tags on and never shut the door.

Now I understand why they won't even change light bulbs if a room is occupied!

[Flo., BSN, RN]

At my hospital it is called a condition H. All the pt's rooms have posters that explaine the Joise King story and what a condition H is. I have worked on my ortho/ neuro unit for a year and we have never had a pt call one.

[jorjaRN]

We had the same policy at a hospital where I worked as a PCT while I was in nursing school, at the hospital I work now as an RN, we have the RRT system, but to my knowledge, patients/family aren't able to activate it.

I thought the exact same things you are thinking when I realized the fact that patients or family could activate the RRT at my old hospital, and I even asked some of the RNs if it was a huge issue, and surprisingly, no one had any problems with patients using it inappropriately.

I think the key was explaining that it is only to be used for life threatening emergencies/changes in condition that they feel are not being adressed, and that it will be taken very seriously if that system is used for something that could have been adressed by the nurses on the floor, or a non emergent situation.

[highlandlass1592, BSN, RN]

We have the same program at our facility. It's been pretty successful actually and I've not heard of any abuse issues. On my service, we try to respond to issues pretty quickly so our patients haven't used the service. I see it as a safegap for care.

[roser13, ASN, RN]

Having been out of the hospital setting for a number of years, I read OP's post and also was convinced (as she seemed to be) that it would indeed be "chaos."

However, the responders have not only caused me to change my mind, but have educated me about what must be a really cool new (to me at least) innovation in hospital care!

[Neveranurseagain, RN]

How many times have families said they knew something was wrong with the patient yet nothing was done?

[dthfytr, ADN, LPN, RN, EMT-B, EMT-I]

Sounds like we're talking about 2 differant things here. RRT or Rapid Response Teams are used at my hospital when staff feel a patient is deteriorating, and is treated very similar to a code blue. I think this is different from what the OP was talking about.

[Flipper911]

I have seen these in a few hospitals. I keep thinking about the homeless and crackheads we get that keep calling 911 from their room to complain that we don't feed them enough. It these little things that keep me smiling!

[chloecatrn]

Here, the RRT and the Condition H teams are two different things. The RN can call the RRT if the patient has an acute change in status. However, the Condition H team is a team that families and patients can call if they feel that they're not being heard about their loved one's care or condition. http://www.josieking.org/