Abstract

CARDOZO OCAMPO, ALEJANDRO; DUQUE HURTADO, CAMILO  and  HALPERT CORREA, KAROLYNN. Is it justifiable for the health institutions to include emergency physicians in the medical emergency teams?. CES Med. [online]. 2009, vol.23, n.2, pp.39-46. ISSN 0120-8705.

Purpose of the review: This review aims at answering whether it is justified to include emergency physicians in the medical emergency teams (METs). Material and methods: The relevant literature was analyzed and selected in Pubmed and Medline, using the following terms: "Medical Emergency Teams", "Rapid Response Teams", "Acute Teams", and combined with "Emergency Medicine", "Emergency Physicians" and "Emergency Departments" from 1990 until 2009. Results: It is currently recommended to set up METs as a measure in favor of intra-hospital patient safety. Nevertheless, the literature shows some discrepancies because some studies suggest that the intervention of such teams do not reduce the frequency of heart and respiratory failure nor admissions to the intensive care units. Therefore, it cannot be recommended to include emergency physicians within those teams given that the economic overcost involved for health institutions in emergency services may not compensate for the results achieved by METs.

Keywords : Hospital safety; Rapid response teams (RRTs); Emergency response teams (ERTs); Hemodynamic instability.

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