title: Effects of rapid response systems on clinical outcomes: systematic review and meta-analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A rapid response system (RRS) consists of providers who immediately assess and treat unstable hospitalized patients. Examples include medical emergency teams and rapid response teams. Early reports of major improvements in patient outcomes led to widespread utilization of RRSs, despite the negative results of a subsequent cluster-randomized trial.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To evaluate the effects of RRSs on clinical outcomes through a systematic literature review.
  
  
  METHODS
  MEDLINE, BIOSIS, and CINAHL searches through August 2006, review of conference proceedings and article bibliographies.
  
  
  METHODS
  Randomized and nonrandomized controlled trials, interrupted time series, and before-after studies reporting effects of an RRS on inpatient mortality, cardiopulmonary arrests, or unscheduled ICU admissions.
  
  
  METHODS
  Two authors independently determined study eligibility, abstracted data, and classified study quality.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Thirteen studies met inclusion criteria: 1 cluster-randomized controlled trial (RCT), 1 interrupted time series, and 11 before-after studies. The RCT showed no effects on any clinical outcome. Before-after studies showed reductions in inpatient mortality (RR = 0.82, 95% CI: 0.74-0.91) and cardiac arrest (RR = 0.73, 95% CI: 0.65-0.83). However, these studies were of poor methodological quality, and control hospitals in the RCT reported reductions in mortality and cardiac arrest rates comparable to those in the before-after studies.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Published studies of RRSs have not found consistent improvement in clinical outcomes and have been of poor methodological quality. The positive results of before-after trials likely reflects secular trends and biased outcome ascertainment, as the improved outcomes they reported were of similar magnitude to those of the control group in the RCT. The effectiveness of the RRS concept remains unproven.
authors: Department of Medicine, University of California San Francisco, California 94143-0131, USA. sumantr@medicine.ucsf.edu
authors: Sumant R
authors: SR
authors: Ranji
authors: Andrew D
authors: AD
authors: Auerbach
authors: Caroline J
authors: CJ
authors: Hurd
authors: Keith
authors: K
authors: O'Rourke
authors: Kaveh G
authors: KG
authors: Shojania
mesh_terms: D004632:Emergency Medical Services / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D006801:Humans; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends*; D016896:Treatment Outcome