Family and Patients Contribute to Patient Safety

Originally published in July/August issue of Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare

By Inga Adams-Pizarro, MHS; Tennille D. Daniels, MPH; and Patty Montone Charvat

Engaging patients and families as integral members of the healthcare team is an essential step in delivering high-quality, safe patient care. One approach for empowering patients and families being implemented in hospitals nationwide is to invite them to activate rapid response teams (RRTs) if patients show signs of physical deterioration or something doesn’t appear “quite right” with the patient.

The growth in RRTs came as a result of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) 100,000 and 5 Million Lives Campaigns, which include RRTs as one strategy for enhancing health quality and patient safety. Generally, the RRT consists of intensive care unit (ICU) personnel who can be summoned to assess and treat any patient outside the ICU who shows signs of deterioration and who may be at risk for cardiac arrest or death. Team make-up varies by hospital, but often includes one or more ICU nurses, a respiratory therapist, and a physician who can be called upon when needed.

Initially, only healthcare professionals could activate RRTs. But, with the inspiration of Sorrel King, whose 18-month-old daughter Josie died as a result of a series of medical errors, patients and families are being empowered to activate teams. Experience has shown that families are often the first ones to recognize that there is an issue or a patient is in distress and requires assistance. In fact, tragic stories like that of the death of Josie King may have been prevented if families were, or felt, free to call on a healthcare team for fresh eyes to assess a change in condition or circumstance.

 Hearing Sorrel King say, “If I would have been able to call a rapid response team, I believe Josie would be here today,” led a number of hospitals to consider and implement Condition Help (Condition H). Among the most notable is the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC), one of the first hospitals in the nation to initiate Condition H. Since implementation, UPMC has been sharing its success and lessons learned with other facilities across the country. Now, Maryland hospitals are moving to adopt this important and innovative approach.

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