Data show many codes outside ICU
The Ohio Children's Hospital Association (OCHA) and its six member hospitals studied where pediatric codes occur and found that many occur outside the neonatal and intensive care units. To improve safety, the group focused on reducing preventable codes occurring outside those areas.
A preventable code was defined as one that could be avoided by early intervention to improve a deteriorating condition, as opposed to an unpreventable code such as one occurring from a seizure. OCHA studied 180 cases from the six hospitals between Jan. 1, 2004, and Sept. 30, 2007. They found 130 cases of respiratory arrest, six cases of cardiac arrest, and 44 cases of simultaneous respiratory and cardiac arrest. Out of those 180 cases, 142 cases occurred in general inpatient rooms outside of the intensive care unit.
More than 70% of the children's lives were saved and were discharged. Of those 180 cases, 107 were deemed to be nonpreventable, which left 73 cases of preventable cardiac or respiratory arrests. OCHA determined that those were the cases in which quick action could have saved the patient's life, so they focused on developing a response plan to that type of pediatric code, resulting in OCHA's systemwide protocol for rapid response teams.
The Ohio Children's Hospital Association (OCHA) and its six member hospitals studied where pediatric codes occur and found that many occur outside the neonatal and intensive care units. To improve safety, the group focused on reducing preventable codes occurring outside those areas.You have reached your article limit for the month. Subscribe now to access this article plus other member-only content.
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