Rapid Response Team in Mercy Sioux City

Excerpted from the Sioux City Journal:

Mercy Medical Center -- Sioux City will begin using a Rapid Response Team this Thursday.

A Rapid Response Team can be called into action to assess a hospitalized patient who has had a significant change in clinical condition while on a non-ICU medical or surgical floor in the hospital.

"The team can be called by the floor nurse or the attending physician," explained Diane Prieksat, Mercy's Quality Services director. "The goal is to intervene as soon as possible when a patient becomes unstable in order to avoid cardiac or pulmonary arrest."


"Several national studies indicate that patients often exhibit signs and symptoms of physiological instability for some period of time prior to cardiac arrest," Prieksat said. "Our Rapid Response Team which will be comprised of a Mercy Air Care flight nurse, an ICU nurse, a respiratory therapist and a laboratory medical technologist will take action whenever a patient first starts to show any of those signs or symptoms that suggest his or her condition is deteriorating."