A physician in new York notified relevant county and state public health authorities in August 2009, of a patient from Rochester with suspected dengue, subsequently confirmed by CDC, whose only travel had been to Key West, FL. Confirmation at the CDC included both serum antibody testing and detection of dengue virus serotype 1 in cerebrospinal fluid.
In the past decade, rapid response teams (RRTs) were broadly implemented to identify and treat patients on medical and surgical wards at risk for catastrophic deterioration and thus prevent death.
This issue deals with two key topics in the ongoing discussion about how critical care should be organized: rapid response systems (also called medical emergency teams or rapid response teams) for identifying patients not in ICUs who are at risk for life-threatening deterioration, and around-the-clock intensivist staffing in the ICU.
The use of a rapid response system (RRS), or medical emergency team (MET), has become established as a patient safety measure to ensure early detection of patient compromise.
One of the hottest topics in critical care these days is whether all ICUs should be staffed around the clock, seven days a week (24/7), by physicians with special training and qualifications in critical care (intensivists).
