Successor to the editors' groundbreaking book on medical emergency teams,Textbook of Rapid Response Systems addresses the problem of patient safety and quality of care; the logistics of creating an RRS (resource allocation, process design, workflow, and training); the implementation of an RRS (organizational issues, challenges); and the evaluation of program results. Based on successful RRS models that have resulted in reduced in-hospital cardiac arrest and overall hospital death rates, this book is a practical guide for physicians, hospital administrators, and other healthcare professionals who wish to initiate an RRS program within their own institutions.

Michael A. DeVita, MD Professor, Critical Care Medicine University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine Department of Critical Medicine Pittsburgh, PA, USA

Ken Hillman, MBBS, MD, FRCA (Eng), FCICM Professor of Intensive Care Director of the Simpson Centre for Health Systems Research The University of New South Wales The Australian Institute of Health Innovation The University of New South Wales Liverpool, Australia

Rinaldo Bellomo, MD Chair, Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Research Centre Professor, Faculty of Medicine, University of Melbourne Honorary Professor, Faculty of Medicine, Monash University Honorary Professor, Faculty of Medicine, The University of Sydney Honorary Principal Research Fellow, Howard Florey Institute, University of Melbourne Director of Intensive Care Research Staff Specialist in Intensive Care Department of Intensive Care Austin Hospital Melbourne, Australia

Section I: RRSs and Patient Safety.- Rapid Response Systems History and Terminology.- RRSs General Principles.- Measuring and Improving Safety.- Integrating a Rapid Response System into a Patient Safety Program.- Acute Hospitalist Medicine and the Rapid Response System.- Medical Trainees and Patient Safety.- Rapid Response Systems: A Review of the Evidence.- Health Care Systems and Their (Lack of) Integration.- Creating Process and Policy Change in Health Care.- The Challenge of Predicting in Hospital Cardiac Arrests and Deaths.- The Meaning of Vital Signs.- Matching Illness Severity with Level of Care.- Causes of Failure to Rescue.- Section II. Creating a RRS.- Impact of Hospital Size and Location on Feasibility of RRS.- Barriers to the Implementation of RRS.- An Overview of the Afferent Limb.- The Impact of Delayed RRS Activation.- The Case for Family Activation of the RRS.- RRT: Nurse-led RRSs.- MET: Physician-led RRSs.- Pediatric RRSs.- Sepsis Response Team.- Other Efferent Limb Teams: (BAT, DAT, M, H, and trauma).- Other Efferent Limb Teams: Crisis Response for Obstetric Patients.- Personnel Resources for Responding Teams.- Equipment, Medications, and Supplies for a RRS.- The Administrative Limb.- The Secondary Victim.- Section III. Monitoring of Efficacy and New Challenges.- RRSs in Teaching Hospitals.- The Nurses View of RRSs.- Resident Training and RRSs.- Optimizing RRSs Through Simulation.- Evaluating Effectiveness of Complex System Interventions.- RRS Education for Ward Staff.- Standardized Process and Outcome Assessment Tool.- The Impact of RRSs on Choosing Not For Resuscitation Status.- The Costs and the Savings.