title: Prompt intervention reduces hospital deaths.
abstract: The objectives of this Australian study were to determine whether earlier clinical intervention by a medical emergency team prompted by clinical instability in a patient could reduce the incidence of and mortality from unexpected cardiac arrest in hospital. A non-randomised, population based study before (1996) and after (1999) introducing the medical emergency team in a 300 bed tertiary referral teaching hospital. All patients admitted to the hospital in 1996 (n=19 317) and 1999 (n=22 847) were included in the study.