Society of Critical Care Medicine to Host New Conference on Quality and Safety
Pre-Course to Highlight Rapid Response Teams
August 3—Initiating a rapid response team (RRT) in the hospital setting can decrease patient deaths, according to the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s 100,000 Lives Campaign. Hospitals that participated in the campaign implemented as many as six evidence-based, lifesaving interventions, including initiating an RRT, to prevent an estimated 122,300 avoidable deaths.
The Society of Critical Care Medicine (SCCM) is a scientific partner to the campaign and recognizes the importance of RRTs in the hospital setting. As a result, the society has developed the “Rapid Response System Training for First Responders” course, to be held on September 21, 2006, in Baltimore.
“Establishing a rapid response system in the hospital setting is a logical step to achieve patient safety and quality improvement goals. The system is designed to protect the patient from further harm and to allow for recovery from possible medical errors and system deficiencies,” said conference co-chair, Marie R. Baldisseri, MD, associate professor of critical care medicine, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh.
The course will offer an international perspective on how to train team members while affording smaller group discussions to analyze real-world case studies. Participants will receive the paper, “Findings of the First Consensus Conference on Medical Emergency Teams,” by Michael A. DeVita, MD, from the University of Pittsburgh. This important paper addresses questions regarding benefit, design elements, and advisability of implementing an RRT system. The paper will be published in the September issue of Critical Care Medicine, the official journal of the Society of Critical Care Medicine.
“Rapid Response System Training for First Responders” is a pre-course to SCCM’s new conference, Excellence in Quality and Safety in Critical Care, to be held September 22 and 23, 2006, in Baltimore. The conference will address the problems of clinical shortages, coupled with diminishing resources and rising medical costs, which are straining health care organizations as well as personnel and can impede the practitioners’ ability to deliver high-quality patient care.
“Improving quality and safety in the ICU requires the coordinated efforts of multiple team members,” said conference co-chair, William F. Dunn, MD, associate professor, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. The Society’s Excellence in Quality and Safety in Critical Care conference will address administrative and clinical problem areas to identify everyday solutions that critical care professionals can use in their practices.
Source: Society of Critical Care Medicine
