title: Activities of a medical emergency team twenty years after its introduction.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  We describe and quantify the wide range of activities that a mature Medical Emergency Team can progressively perform.
  
  
  METHODS
  The activities performed by a Medical Emergency Team 20 years after its introduction were prospectively collected during 105 consecutive days.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The main activity was focused on the follow-up visits to previously treated critically ill patients (mean 7.5 visits/die in working days, 5.1 in the others). A large amount of other scheduled or unscheduled activities (like sedation or analgesia for diagnostic procedures, central venous line placement, phone consultation regarding critical care aspects of treatments) were performed: on average, 7.3 side-activities/die in working days and 5.2 in the others. First consultations in patients not previously seen were on average 3.1/die on working days, 2.4 in the others. Cardiac arrest accounted for 27 (9%) of first time visits.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A Medical Emergency Team can progressively perform many kinds of activities. An evaluation limited to the reduction of in-hospital cardiac arrests or a too early assessment may underestimate its beneficial effects on the Hospital complexity.
authors: Department of Anaesthesia and Intensive Care, Università Vita-Salute San Raffaele, Milan, Italy.
authors: L
authors: L
authors: Cabrini
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Monti
authors: G
authors: G
authors: Landoni
authors: P
authors: P
authors: Silvani
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Colombo
authors: S
authors: S
authors: Morero
authors: M
authors: M
authors: Mucci
authors: P C
authors: PC
authors: Bergonzi
authors: D
authors: D
authors: Mamo
authors: A
authors: A
authors: Zangrillo
keywords: cardiac arrest; medical emergency team; prevention; quality of care; rapid response team