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Improvement Report
Reducing Hospital Mortality Rates at Henry Ford Hospital with a Rapid Response Team
Henry Ford Hospital
Detroit, Michigan, USA

Team
William Conway, MD, Chief Medical Officer
Bruno DiGiovine, MD, MPH, Medical Director, Medical Critical Care 
Leslie Bricker, MD, Oncology/Palliative Medicine
Aml Raafat, MD, General Surgery
Jack Jordan, Lead Systems Analyst, Henry Ford Health System
John Mailey, RN, BSN, House Manager, Clinical Resources
David Baillod, RN, BSN, Director, Clinical Resources
Gwen Gnam, RN, MSN, Nursing Administrator
Wendy Scott-Quinn, RN, MSM, MBA, Nursing Administrator 
Leia Morse, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Jeff Moody, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Latonya Davis, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Connie Mitchell, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources 
Cassie Manzella, RN, BSN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources 
Lashawn Williams, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources 
Karyn Ervans, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Craig Mooney, RN, BSN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Philippa Lowes, RN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources 
Ivana Zagar, RN, BScN, Clinical Coordinator, Clinical Resources
Brenda Simmons, RN, MSN, Nurse Manager B2 
Nancy Price, RN, BSN, Nurse Manager, MCC
Mary Voutt-Goos, RN, BScN, Unit Educator, CLinical Resources
Dana Greggs, RN, MSN, CNS, B1 and B2


Aim
To reduce the hospital mortality rate by 25 percent in one year.

Measures
  • Unadjusted hospital mortality rate
  • "Blue" alerts per 1,000 discharges
  • Percent of patients with "blue" alerts discharged alive
  • Outcome of calls to Rapid Response Team
  • Percent of Rapid Response Team patients transferred to ICU


Changes
  • Deployed Rapid Response Team to intercede before patient deteriorated on GPU
  • ICU discharges are being seen within 24 hours of being discharged from ICU
  • Rapid Response Team nurses to implement palliative care consults
  • Relocated selected medications to PYXIS units for Rapid Response Team use


Results
 
Summary of Results / Lessons Learned / Next Steps

Rapid Response Teams not only offer a form of support to nursing in a general practice setting, they also enable an effective route to observe nursing practice issues and needs.

  • Improvement of communication between disciplines
  • Early interventions reduce hospital mortality rate
  • Good customer service leads to increased customer base


Contact Information

John Mailey, RN, BSN
House Manager, Clinical Resources Patient Care Services
Henry Ford Hospital
jmailey1@hfhs.org

 

[Storyboard presentation at IHI's National Forum, December 2005]




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