ANZICS: ANZICS safety & quality conference - The deteriorating patient

By ahhb
Monday, 16 March, 2015

Rapid Response Teams and Medical Emergency Teams were pioneered by Australian and New Zealand clinicians to improve the detection, recognition and response to deteriorating hospital patients ¹. There is now convincing evidence that their implementation is associated with reductions in the incidence of cardiac arrests in hospitalised patients². Rapid Response Systems are an essential part of our hospital patient safety systems, and are a mandatory aspect of hospital accreditation.

In 2014, The Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) convened the first Safety and Quality Conference on the role of the intensive care with Rapid Response Teams. This conference was over-subscribed and received overwhelmingly positive feedback. The findings of the conference were published in the journal Anaesthesia and Intensive Care ³.
The 2015 ANZICS Safety and Quality Conference will focus on Rapid Response Teams as well as broader aspects of deteriorating ward patients. Dr Michael DeVita, the inaugural President of the newly formed International Society of Rapid Response Systems will provide an update on the global perspective of the Rapid Response Teams.
This year there are two streams to the program with sessions including:

Original research

An update on Rapid Response Teams in Australia and New Zealand

Rapid Response Teams in the Paediatric setting

Deteriorating patients in the private sector.

Unique aspects of Rapid Response Teams in specific settings such as the emergency department, sub-acute care, and in the obstetric setting.

The role of Rapid Response Teams and end of life care

Strategies to prevent Rapid Response Team calls

On the first day of the Conference, a forum will be held to scope and discuss the development of an educational and training curriculum for intensive care Rapid Response Team nurses.
In a “Meet the Experts” session, there will be an opportunity for delegates to meet experts to obtain advice about Rapid Response Teams and safety strategies for deteriorating patients to take back to their local hospital.
On the second day of the conference, there will be an entire stream outlining a model for how Rapid Response Team members should approach and manage deteriorating patients. This course will also provide practical advice on how senior clinicians can establish scenarios for team training.
The Program has relevance for intensive care doctors and nurses involved in the Rapid Response System, as well as intensive care liaison nurses. It is also relevant for ward-based clinicians who care for at-risk and deteriorating patients, hospital staff involved in the education of such clinicians, and quality coordinators involved in the assessment and implementation of elements of the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care’s National Safety and Quality in Health Service Standard Number 9 ⁴. On behalf of ANZICS and the Organising Committee, we look forward to seeing you there.

References
1. Jones DA, DeVita M, Bellomo R. Current Concepts: Rapid- Response Teams. NEJM 2011; 365:139-46
2. Winters BD, Weaver SJ, PFoh ER, Yang T, Pham JC, Dy SM. Rapid Response Systems as a Patient safety strategy. Ann Intern med. 2013; 158: 417-425
3. The ANZICS-RRT SIG * Findings of the First ANZICS Conference on the Role of Intensive Care in Rapid Response Teams. Anaesthesia and Intensive Care. 2015.
4. Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards (September 2012). Sydney: ACSQHC, 2012.