C56-33 Examining the Relationship Between Inciting Events of Rapid Responses and Resulting In-Hospital Cardiac Arrests at a Tertiary, Academic Medical Center

Rationale Rapid response teams (RRT) were designed for the early detection and intervention of patients at high-risk for clinical deterioration, including those at risk for in-hospital cardiac arrest (IHCA). Multi-center studies have previously identified respiratory events as the most common trigger for both RRTs and IHCA. Our pilot study examined the number of IHCA (“code blues”) that occurred after the initiation of the rapid response team at our tertiary, academic medical center. We sought to identify if certain RRT triggers were more likely to lead to IHCA, as this may reveal potential gaps in the training/preparedness of the rapid response team. Methods Retrospective data collection was performed for 628 rapid responses at University Hospital in Newark, New Jersey, including the inciting medical events. Inciting events were split into six categories: cardiac, respiratory, neurological, medical, and others (e.g. staff concern). Chi-square testing was performed to determine if a statistically significant difference exists between the RRT triggers that led to IHCA to those that did not utilizing Stata® software. Results Of the 628 rapid responses examined, 34 (5.4%, 95% CI 3.9-7.5%) converted to ICHA. The most common events that converted to ICHA were respiratory (13/203 or 6.4%, 95% CI 3.8-10.6%) followed by neurological (8/139, or 5.7%, 95% CI 3.0-10.8%). However, when compared to RRTs that did not convert to ICHA, there was no statistically significant difference between the inciting event type and the proportion of which led to ICHA (p = 0.3522) (Table 1). Conclusions Our analysis showed that there is no significant difference between the type of inciting event for rapid responses that led to cardiac arrest to those that did not. Given the inability to predict the type of patient events that may lead to ICHA, our study suggests that all RRT members should remain on high alert for potential clinical deterioration to ICHA when participating in rapid responses, regardless of the inciting patient trigger. This abstract is funded by: None