A prospective before-and-after trial of a medical emergency team

Abstract

Objective: To determine the effect on cardiac arrests and overall hospital mortality of an intensive care-based medical emergency team. Design and setting: Prospective before-and-after trial in a tertiary referral hospital. Patients: Consecutive patients admitted to hospital during a 4-month "before" period (May - August 1999) (n=21 090) and a 4-month intervention period (November 2000 - February 2001) (n=20 921). Main outcome measures: Number of cardiac arrests, number of patients dying after cardiac arrest, number of postcardiac-arrest bed-days and overall number of in-hospital deaths. Results: There were 63 cardiac arrests in the "before" period and 22 in the intervention period (relative..