title: [Medical emergency teams: current situation and perspectives of preventive in-hospital intensive care medicine].
abstract: Severe clinical incidents occur in up to 10% of all non-intensive care unit (ICU) patients, which have an estimated mortality of 5-8%. As in the prehospital setting, early clinical warning signs can be identified in the majority of cases. Studies suggest that introduction of an in-hospital medical emergency team (MET) which responds to objective criteria of physiological deterioration, may effectively reduce the incidence of in-hospital cardiac arrests as well as unanticipated or readmissions to the ICU. According to this concept, METs would evaluate and treat non-ICU patients at risk at an early stage before a potentially fatal deterioration of cardiorespiratory parameters occurs. This article reviews available data on preventive in-hospital intensive care medicine and reflects on the circumstances for an implementation of METs in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
authors.affiliation: Zentrum Anaesthesiologie, Rettungs- und Intensivmedizin, Universitätsmedizin Göttingen, Robert-Koch-Strasse 40, 37075 Göttingen, Deutschland. srusso@zari.de
authors.forename: S G
authors.initials: SG
authors.lastname: Russo
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Eich
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Roessler
authors.forename: B M
authors.initials: BM
authors.lastname: Graf
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Quintel
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Timmermann
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D018450:Disease Progression; D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000458:organization & administration*; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000401:mortality; D017052:Hospital Mortality; D006801:Humans; D007362:Intensive Care Units / Q000458:organization & administration*; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D010348:Patient Care Team; D010359:Patient Readmission; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D012306:Risk; D000078329:Workforce