February 1, 2007

New rapid response team RACEs into action

Kingston General Hospital today launched its new rapid response team that aims to assess and care for patients whose conditions are deteriorating and ultimately decrease the number of cardiac arrests.

The Rapid Assessment of Critical Event or RACE Team, which consists of a specially trained registered nurse, a respiratory therapist and an attending physician, will be called by a patient’s primary care team if a patient experiences changes to their airway, breathing, circulation or level of consciousness. The RACE Team will assist in addressing the immediate needs of the patient regardless of where they are being treated within the hospital 24 hours a day. Response time is about four minutes.

Critical care physician Dr. Dan Howes is the RACE Team leader at KGH. “Most patients who experience cardiac arrest have documented signs of deterioration up to eight hours prior so it’s key that these concerns be addressed immediately. That’s what the RACE Team will help do,” says Dr. Howes, Director of the Regional Trauma Program for Southeastern Ontario. “We know that when we catch life-threatening conditions early, we have the greatest impact.”

KGH’s RACE Team, which includes 14 registered nurses, eight physicians and the hospital’s more than 30 respiratory therapists, trained within the newly-created enhanced care unit for three months. The response so far has been encouraging, says registered nurse and nursing co-leader Rana Fowler.

“We have assembled a very dynamic team with extensive critical care and resuscitation expertise and fellow staff have been keen to take advantage of our specialized training and knowledge. We all have the same goal – to catch serious problems early so that we can give our patients the very best care possible.”

At centres where rapid response teams already exist, cardiac arrests have decreased by about 30 per cent and length of intensive care unit stays by three to four days. KGH staff respond to an average of 100 cardiac arrests every year.

KGH is one of 22 hospital sites in Ontario taking part in a two-year rapid response team pilot funded by the Ministry of Health and Long-Term Care.

Affiliated with Queen’s University, Kingston General Hospital is a 456-bed specialized teaching and research hospital that serves more than 500,000 people in southeastern Ontario and is the community hospital for the Kingston area. KGH provides an array of specialized acute and ambulatory clinical services including trauma, cardiac, stroke, pediatric, perinatal, end stage renal and stem cell transplants. Home to the Cancer Centre of Southeastern Ontario, KGH is dedicated to compassionate, high quality health care in a dynamic academic research environment. It features a robust research program and provides hands-on skill training for close to 1,900 health-care students annually. For more information, visit the web site at http://www.kgh.on.ca .

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Leading Care. Changing Lives.

Media contact: Karen Smith, KGH Public Affairs, 613-549-6666 ext. 6345