Impact of Pulmonary Embolism Response Team on Outcomes of Pulmonary Embolism – Experience from an Indian Tertiary Care Center

Aims: Pulmonary embolism (PE) remains underdiagnosed and inconsistently managed in the Indian healthcare setting due to specialty-driven silos, lack of standardized referral pathways, and limited access to advanced therapies. Recognizing these challenges, we pioneered the establishment of the multidisciplinary PE response team (PERT) in December 2023 to streamline and standardize the care of PE patients. This study aimed to quantify the impact of PERT on clinical outcomes of patients treated with acute PE. Subjects and Methods: Ambispective analysis of the patients diagnosed with acute PE before and after formation of PERT at Medanta – The Medicity, Gurugram. The referral patterns, time to diagnosis, time to intervention, changes in patient outcomes (30-day mortality, intensive care unit [ICU] length of stay [LOS], and total LOS), and use of advanced therapies between January 2022 and December 2023 (pre-PERT) and January 2024 and April 2025 (post-PERT) were compared. Results: Post-PERT formation, PE case referrals increased to 248% (from 75 to 186 cases per year). Post-PERT, there was a significant reduction in time to diagnosis (from 775 min to 252 min), ICU LOS (from 4 days to 2 days), total LOS (from 14 days to 9 days), and 30-day all-cause mortality (23.5% to 14.2%). A paradigm shift was observed with the increased adoption of mechanical thrombectomy, particularly in intermediate-risk PE cases. Conclusions: The implementation of the multidisciplinary PERT at our institution marks a significant advancement in the multidisciplinary management of PE. This scalable model warrants adoption across tertiary care centers nationwide to elevate PE care in India.