Response team always on call for Condition H
This description of the Condition H system comes from Tamra Merryman, RN, MSN, FACHE, vice president of the Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health System:
Condition H is activated by calling the same number — 3-3131 — that anyone would use to activate a code call. (In the case of UPMC, a code call would be a Condition A or Condition C. Like many hospitals, UPMC uses Condition A for cardiac arrest and Condition C for a critical medical crisis, rather than Code Blue.) The operators have been trained to respond not only when a caller asks for a Condition H, but also when the caller seems to need a Condition H but just doesn't know the proper term. The operator also can tell what room the call comes from. At that point, the operator sends a Condition H page to the pagers of the rapid response team and also makes the call over the public address system throughout the facility. The initial response team is three people: a house physician, the nursing supervisor, and a patient relations representative.
"The makeup of the team can be different for other organizations," she says. "The important thing is that it's a different group of people who are objective, responsive, and listening."
The patient's floor nurses also must respond because they have the most current information about the patient. The key person in the rapid response team is the house physician, Merryman says, because even though most of the first Condition H calls have not been a matter of immediate life or death, any call could be. "They respond just like to any other emergency," she says. "They come running."
Once they arrive, the team listens to the patient or family's concerns and responds appropriately with medical care or further investigation. Response time is usually three to five minutes, and Merryman says team members are chosen partly for their ability to show up with a smile on their face. The whole effort can be sabotaged if someone on the response team shows up and says, "This had better be good, because I was busy …"
This description of the Condition H system comes from Tamra Merryman, RN, MSN, FACHE, vice president of the Center for Quality Improvement and Innovation for the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) Health System.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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