Question
What are the benefits of having rapid response teams in post-acute care?
Answer
One benefit of rapid response teams in post-acute care is that it decreases the number of patients returned to acute care and interrupted stays. Interrupted stays are very traumatic for patients and families, especially when they've come from acute care and are in post-acute where they feel like they're on the road to recovery. All of a sudden, they have to go back to square one which can set them back and set them up not to be able to return to their previous life activities.
Another benefit is the opportunity to establish the best plan of care or next steps. That's what our PACE team is able to do. We have time to look at the patient as a multidisciplinary team as they are early in their deterioration and establish the best plan. In addition, these designated teams provide care providers with a thorough assessment and evaluation of the patient by completing the head-to-toe assessment and using the SBAR.
The education and mentoring of new nurses and RTs are also beneficial. Not everyone naturally takes the opportunity for teaching moments. Ongoing education is very helpful, especially when you use mock scenarios. We had mock code training at our facility. We had pediatric and adult mock code training, and we were beginning to incorporate scenarios of subtle deterioration into our training. We always had such good results and feedback from our staff about having those case studies to review and to participate in.
Cost savings to the facility is also a benefit to post-acute rapid response. Anytime we can keep patients on the road to recovery without setbacks it is going to be cost-effective as well as providing higher quality care.
This Ask the Expert is an edited excerpt from the course, The Registered Nurse and Respiratory Therapist Alliance: Identifying and Assessing Acutely and Subtly Declining Patients, presented by Nancy Nathenson, RRT.
