Verde Valley Medical Center utilizes a Rapid Response Team (RRT) program to provide assistance to individuals before there is a medical emergency such as a heart attack.
     
The goal of an RRT is to have members of a care team with the appropriate skills, knowledge, and experience available to respond as soon as individuals at risk are identified. Studies indicate that individuals often exhibit signs and symptoms of physiological instability for some period of time prior to becoming what is considered critical. If these signs and symptoms can be identified in a timely manner, unnecessary critical situations often can be prevented.

Hospitals throughout the country are taking the initiative to implement Rapid Response Teams in partnership with organizations such as the Institute for Healthcare Improvement, Society of Critical Care Medicine, Association of American Medical Colleges, American Heart Association, and National Registry of Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation. VVMC is part of that movement.

The VVMC RRT includes a hospitalist, ICU nurse, respiratory therapist, and charge nurse. RRT members must have the critical care skills necessary to respond and assess, must be onsite, accessible, and available to respond immediately when called. Any colleague at VVMC can call the RRT if they encounter a patient, visitor or fellow employee who doesn’t look right or says they aren’t feeling right. They also can call the RRT for individuals who meet any of the criteria or “triggers” such hemorrhage, seizure, or sudden change in respiratory status, oxygenation, level of consciousness, mental status or heart rate.

Having a Rapid Response Team program in place is just one of the many ways VVMC is proactively fulfilling its mission of improving the health of the people and communities it serves.